Amazon.com Inc.’s decision to cut off its Rhode Island affiliates because of a new tax law topped the list of most-read PBN.com stories this year.

The Amazon story – like others on the list, such as the Senate’s battle over jobless benefits and the suicide of a financier – was a national story as well as a local one, demonstrating the power of the Internet to drive traffic to smaller sites. Both CNET and Techmeme linked to the story.