Michael Jackson’s death and related events has drawn the most online buzz in Internet history. News of his death on June 25 broke daily records, capturing nearly 8 percent of all conversations on the web. Buzz surrounding Jackson’s July 7 public memorial (which drew 31.1 million TV viewers) ranks as the third most-discussed topic online ever at more than 3 percent of conversations and early data for July 8 indicates that yesterday’s traffic record may already be eclipsed by today’s ongoing discussion. The one other event to …

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 …

Following the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, which was viewed by 37.8M on television, Nielsen Online released traffic figures for the top 10 most visited Current Events & Global News web sites on Inauguration Day. In addition, Nielsen also reported the fastest growing news sites on January 20th, Web traffic to whitehouse.gov and the most linked-to videos of the day.
CNN Digital Network was the top online Current Events & Global News destination when ranked by unique audience on Inauguration Day, with 11.0 million unique visitors. MSNBC Digital Network and Yahoo! …

News sites like MSNBC, the Huffington Post, Fox News, ABC, and the Washington Post, all saw significant gains in traffic with pre-election coverage according to Nielsen Online, which compared October 2008 visits with stats from October 2007.
MSNBC Digital Network topped the list of news sites with nearly 41M unique visitors, a 37% jump from the prior year.
The news/opinion site the Huffington Post placed 18th on the list, but showed the greatest traffic gain. It’s 8.1M unique readers for October 2008 was a 448% improvement over the prior year.
CNN, Yahoo!, AOL, …

RANK
PROGRAM
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
ELECTION NIGHT 08(S)-11/04/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
15,209,000

2
NFL REGULAR SEASON – L (STEELERS/REDSKINS)
ESPN
MONDAY
14,205,000

3
ELECTION NIGHT 08(S)-11/04/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
13,172,000

4
ELECTION NIGHT 08(S)-11/04/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
12,409,000

5
ELECTION NIGHT 08(S)-11/04/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
11,299,000

6
ELECTION NIGHT 08(S)-11/04/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
11,039,000

7
AMERICAS ELECTION HQ
FOXNC
TUESDAY
9,454,000

8
AMERICAS ELECTION HQ
FOXNC
TUESDAY
9,322,000

9
ELECTION NIGHT 08(S)-11/04/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
8,522,000

10
AMERICAS ELECTION HQ
FOXNC
TUESDAY
8,304,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 3 – 9, 2008).

Where did Web-savvy political junkies head to keep up with Election Day news back in 2004?
According to Nielsen Online, CNN’s website drew more than 3.3 million unique visitors surfing the Web from home on November 4, 2004.
Meanwhile, MSNBC’s and Yahoo! News’ websites attracted unique audiences of more than 2.7 million and 2.6 million at home, respectively.

RANK
PROGRAM
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
MLB ALCS (RED SOX-RAYS 7)
TBSC
SUNDAY
13,357,000

2
NFL REGULAR SEASON L (GIANTS/BROWNS)
ESPN
MONDAY
11,422,000

3
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE(S)-10/15/2008
FOXNC
WEDNESDAY
9,068,000

4
SR/PRES DEBATE 3 2008(S)-10/15/2008
CNN
WEDNESDAY
8,931,000

5
MLB ALCS (RED SOX-RAYS 6)
TBSC
SATURDAY
8,928,000

6
ANDERSON COOPER 360
CNN
WEDNESDAY
7,795,000

7
SPONGEBOB
NICK
MONDAY
7,666,000

8
ON THE RECORD W/GRETA
FOXNC
WEDNESDAY
7,394,000

9
MLB ALCS (RAYS-RED SOX 5)
TBSC
THURSDAY
7,211,000

10
SPONGEBOB
NICK
MONDAY
5,778,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 13, 2008 – October 19, 2008).

RANK
PROGRAM
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NFL REGULAR SEASON – L (VIKINGS/SAINTS)
ESPN
MONDAY
10,975,000

2
SR/PRES DEBATE 2 2008(S)-10/07/2008
CNN
TUESDAY
9,228,000

3
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE(S)-10/07/2008
FOXNC
TUESDAY
8,773,000

4
ON THE RECORD W/GRETA
FOXNC
TUESDAY
7,645,000

5
ANDERSON COOPER 360
CNN
TUESDAY
7,633,000

6
MLB ALCS (RED SOX-RAYS 1)
TBSC
FRIDAY
6,689,000

7
MLB ALCS (RED SOX-RAYS 2)
TBSC
SATURDAY
6,089,000

8
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE CVG(S)-10/07/2008
FOXNC
TUESDAY
5,773,000

9
MLB DIVISION SERIES (ANGELS-RED SOX 4)
TBSC
MONDAY
5,720,000

10
PRES DEBATE/ANALYSIS(S)-10/07/2008
FOXNC
TUESDAY
5,432,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 6, 2008 – October 12, 2008).

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NFL REGULAR SEASON L (RAVENS/STEELERS)
ESPN
MONDAY
11,783,000

2
VP DEBATE(S)-10/02/2008
FOXNC
THURSDAY
11,098,000

3
SR/VICE PRES DEBATE 2008(S)-10/02/2008
CNN
THURSDAY
10,685,000

4
ON THE RECORD W/GRETA
FOXNC
THURSDAY
9,801,000

5
ANDERSON COOPER 360
CNN
THURSDAY
7,961,000

6
VP DEBATE CVG(S)-10/02/2008
FOXNC
THURSDAY
7,372,000

7
VP DEBATE ANALYSIS(S)-10/02/2008
FOXNC
THURSDAY
6,977,000

8
MLB DIVISION SERIES (ANGELS-RED SOX 3)
TBSC
SUNDAY
6,199,000

9
THE OREILLY FACTOR
FOXNC
THURSDAY
5,624,000

10
MLB DIVISION SERIES (DODGERS-CUBS 1)
TBSC
WEDNESDAY
5,381,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 29, 2008 – October 5, 2008).

Television audiences for four U.S. news networks spiked Monday afternoon after the House of Representatives voted to defeat Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Wall Street bailout bill, Nielsen reported Wednesday. 
During the 2pm to 3pm (EST) daypart on Monday, the combined audiences for CNN, CNBC, FOX News, and MSNBC jumped by 71% over the average daily audience for that daypart between Sept. 1 and Sept. 28, according to Nielsen.  The 3pm to 4pm daypart saw an even larger jump (103%) over the average audience for the prior portion of September. 

Daypart
CNN, CNBC, FOX News, and MSNBC Combined TV Audience:
Sept. 1 – 28
(in 000s)
CNN, CNBC, FOX …