Demand For Political News Boosts Sept. Traffic To U.S. News Sites
According to Nielsen Online, in September NYTimes.com was the top U.S.-based online newspaper site, while MSNBC Digital Network (MSNBC) was the top U.S. online news outlet, Editor & Publisher reported this week.
The NY Times’ website drew just over 20 million unique visitors in September — a 37% increase over unique traffic to the site last September.
| Sept. 2008 Rank | Top 10 Newspaper Sites (ranked by unique users) |
Sept. 2008 Unique Traffic (in 000’s) |
% Growth Vs. Sept. 2007 Unique Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NYTimes.com | 20,068 | 37% |
| 2 | washingtonpost.com | 12,956 | 43% |
| 3 | USATODAY.com | 11,439 | 33% |
| 4 | LA Times | 10,022 | 102% |
| 5 | Wall Street Journal Online | 9,047 | 94% |
| 6 | Boston.com | 8,610 | 122% |
| 7 | SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle | 5,129 | 18% |
| 8 | New York Post | 4,815 | 98% |
| 9 | Politico | 4,605 | 219% |
| 10 | Chicago Tribune | 4,558 | 46% |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (September 2008). |
Meanwhile, MSNBC saw 44% year over year growth, reaching 43.2 million unique visitors in September, according to Nielsen.
| Sept. 2008 Rank | Top 10 Online News Outlets (ranked by unique users) |
Sept. 2008 Unique Traffic (in 000’s) |
% Growth Vs. Sept. 2007 Unique Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MSNBC Digital Network | 43,211 | 44% |
| 2 | Yahoo! News | 38,073 | 18% |
| 3 | CNN Digital Network | 37,277 | 21% |
| 4 | AOL News | 21,419 | 2% |
| 5 | NYTimes.com | 20,068 | 37% |
| 6 | Tribune Newspapers | 18,033 | 46% |
| 7 | ABCNEWS Digital Network | 17,181 | 87% |
| 8 | Fox News Digital Network | 14,864 | 91% |
| 9 | Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division | 13,689 | 11% |
| 10 | Google News | 13,502 | 39% |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (September 2008). |
Surging interest in the U.S. presidential campaign likely drove growth for several U.S. news sites in September.
The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska cracked Nielsen’s top 30 newspaper websites ranking for the first time, following a 928% jump in unique visitors over last September. Sudden demand for news on Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in September may have driven that dramatic increase.
Two politics-centric sites, Politico.com (+219%) and TheHuffingtonPost.com (+457%), also saw notably large year over year percentage growth in September.
Meanwhile, Boston.com’s 122% above average growth can perhaps be attributed to Autumn baseball fever in the Hub.
Overall, all but three of the top 30 online news outlets, and all but one of the top 30 newspaper websites, attracted larger online audiences in September 2008 than they did the prior September.
View the top 30 newspaper websites for September in Editor & Publisher.
View the top 30 online news outlets for September in Editor & Publisher.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the (Toronto) Globe and Mail.
https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2008/demand-for-political-news-boosts-sept-traffic-to-us-news-sites/
