If 2019 was the year of the bankruptcy in the channel, 2020 might be the year of bouncing back — with potentially a big impact on Windstream and Fusion Connect partners.

Stories on each company pursuing an exit from chapter 11 cracked our top-stories countdown for December.

A couple of articles on new hires and promotions in the channel – always a popular topic – can be found here as well. Forcepoint and CenturyLink were the recipients of the new staffers.

M&A activity tends to be a regular in our countdown as well; this time, it was AppSmart buying CNSG.

Which was No. 1?

Our top 12, outlined in the gallery below, feature the stories that got the most eyeballs from both the web as a whole and our weekly newsletters. I hope you’ve signed up for that already.

Missed the previous month’s top stories? Click here to see our most-read posts in November.

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.