I’ve changed the stats I show on constructor “baseball cards” again. No more POW count, no more Pangram count. Instead, I show the number of answer words debuted by the constructor. The FAQ has the details.
Here’s a sample card, this one from Christina Iverson, an associate puzzle editor at the New York Times.
In this snapshot, she has 27 daily crosswords plus one Puns and Anagrams puzzle counted under Variety.
It’s the bottom row that has changed. Debut here means that she has introduced 163 new answer words, never seen before in any crossword going back to 1942. (Variety puzzles aren’t included.)
Debuts are not shown for constructors who only have pre-Shortz puzzles. The further back in time you go the less meaningful this number is. After all, in the first NYT crossword, every entry was a debut!
If you’re curious which constructors have introduced the most new words, here’s the list. The top five are Patrick Berry, Manny Nosowsky, Elizabeth C. Gorski, Byron Walden, and David J. Kahn. (It helps if you have lots of published puzzles and focus on themeless or Sunday.)