Although DrudgeReport.com again has the highest number of sessions per person by far, MSNBC now tops Yahoo! News on unique audience.
Nielsen Online provides these numbers to the Newspaper Association of America on a monthly basis, showing traffic and sessions per person* to the top 30 sites in the “News” category based on May 2008 numbers. It takes into account U.S. home and work Internet usage, and it shows both unique visitors to each brand or channel and sessions per person. (For more information about the sourcing of these statistics, please visit www.netratings.com.)
Newspapers
The Deseret Morning News, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, suddenly moved into the top 10 on the sessions per person list; the newspaper wasn’t listed last month. The newspaper instituted a redesign last year that included article commenting, a “most popular” list and several other features that have increased traffic to the site. However, The Deseret News was not able to explain the sudden jump this summer in Nielsen’s numbers, as they don’t reflect internal numbers.
Other newspaper moves on the list from last month to this month:
- Gannett’s Newspaper Division moved down just slightly, from 12th place to 13th.
- The Star Tribune moved up to 15th place from 19th.
- The New York Times moved 16th place, down one spot.
- Media General moved down two spots to 18th.
In the bottom 10 of this list: Hearst Newspapers Digital, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and washingtonpost.com moved up slightly; USAToday.com dropped slightly; and, Cox Newspapers moved off the list (from 28th place last month).
Like last month, 10 of the top 30 in this list are newspapers or newspaper companies. (For more newspaper company metrics from Nielsen, click here.)
* Note on the following numbers: Auto-refresh features on Web sites (i.e. when a Web site page reloads automatically) does not increase the number of sessions. For more information about the metrics, go to www.netratings.com
^ Indicates Home and Work audience duplication projections did not meet minimum sample size standards. Combined home and work audience estimates for these sites may exhibit increased variability month-to-month as a result.
| Brand or Channel |
Sessions per Person
|
Unique Audience ('000) |
| 1. drudgereport.com |
21.2 |
2,709 |
| 2. Daily Kos^ |
10.0 |
936 |
| 3. Fox News Digital Network |
8.2 |
10,471 |
| 4. AOL News |
8.2 |
22,081 |
| 5. CNN Digital Network |
7.3 |
33,417 |
| 6. Yahoo! News |
7.1 |
34,992 |
| 7. Deseret Morning News^ |
6.4 |
905 |
| 8. Google News |
6.4 |
10,543 |
| 9. ksl.com^ |
5.9 |
982 |
| 10. Netscape |
5.8 |
1,690
|
| 11. MSNBC Digital Network |
5.8 |
37,644
|
| 12. Breitbart.com |
5.7 |
1,980 |
| 13. Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division |
5.1 |
12,405 |
| 14. Newsmax.com |
5.1 |
2,711 |
| 15. Star Tribune |
5.0 |
1,844 |
| 16. NYTimes.com |
4.5 |
17,650 |
| 17. Townhall.com |
4.4 |
1,025 |
| 18. Media General Newspapers |
4.4 |
1,798 |
| 19. Real Clear Politics^ |
4.4 |
1,008 |
| 20. IB Websites |
4.1 |
6,079 |
| 21. WorldNow |
4.1 |
7,957 |
| 22. TWC News Websites^ |
4.1 |
1,114 |
| 23. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
4.0 |
1,450 |
| 24. USAToday.com |
3.9 |
9,626 |
| 25. wasingtonpost.com |
3.8 |
9,062 |
| 26. Hearst Newspapers Digital |
3.6 |
7,372 |
| 27. Gannett Broadcasting |
3.6 |
4,806 |
| 28. Cox Newspapers |
3.4 |
5,122 |
| 29. GTGI Network |
3.4 |
1,631 |
| 30. worldnetdaily.com |
3.4 |
1,209 |