April 21, 2009
As the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced, Nielsen Online released data on unique visitors to online news sites for March 2009. MSNBC, CNN, and Yahoo! News led the way, with each showing gains over last year’s traffic numbers. The BBC (up 61%), Fox News (up 48%) and McClatchy Newspaper Network (up 20%) reported solid gains while, Gannett Newspapers (down 11%), USA Today and CBS News (both down 7%) slid down from last year’s mark. The NY Times, which led all outlets with five Pulitzers, drew 7% more visitors than the previous year making it the top newspaper site.
| Top Global News Sites, by Unique Visitors: March 2009 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Site | Unique Audience | YOY Change |
| 1 | MSNBC Digital Network | 39,900,000 | 9% |
| 2 | CNN Digital Network | 38,724,000 | 4% |
| 3 | Yahoo! News | 37,902,000 | 16% |
| 4 | AOL News | 23,604,000 | 1% |
| 5 | NYTimes.com | 20,118,000 | 7% |
| 6 | Fox News Digital Network | 16,791,000 | 48% |
| 7 | Tribune Newspapers | 16,513,000 | 16% |
| 8 | Google News | 13,668,000 | 18% |
| 9 | McClatchy Newspaper Network | 12,508,000 | 20% |
| 10 | ABCNEWS Digital Network | 12,189,000 | 4% |
| 11 | Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division | 11,609,000 | (-11%) |
| 12 | USATODAY.com | 9,961,000 | (-7%) |
| 13 | CBS News Digital Network | 9,599,000 | (-7%) |
| 14 | washingtonpost.com | 9,367,000 | 5% |
| 15 | BBC | 9,022,000 | 61% |
| Source: Nielsen Online | |||
Visit Editor & Publisher for the full list of the top 30 news sites and online newspaper sites.
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