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).

RANK
PROGRAM
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NFL REGULAR SEASON – L (BRONCOS/PATRIOTS)
ESPN
MONDAY
10,822,000

2
WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE
DSNY
SUNDAY
4,920,000

3
SPONGEBOB
NICK
SATURDAY
4,685,000

4
WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE
DSNY
SUNDAY
4,587,000

5
SPONGEBOB
NICK
SATURDAY
4,418,000

6
THE OREILLY FACTOR
FOXNC
WEDNESDAY
4,390,000

7
SPONGEBOB
NICK
SATURDAY
4,354,000

8
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
MONDAY
4,320,000

9
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
MONDAY
4,238,000

10
THE OREILLY FACTOR
FOXNC
THURSDAY
4,171,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 20, 2008 – October 26, 2008).

Good news for Sen. John McCain’s campaign: cheap, but effective TV advertising options abound, according to a new report by Nielsen PreView.
Chief among these thrifty advertising alternatives – the auto-themed Speed Channel, which Republicans are 52% more likely to watch, compared with the average American.
In comparison, Republican voters are 48% more likely to watch FOX News and 33% more likely to watch Country Music Television. 
The takeaway: well-placed cable advertising can reach core Republican constituents at a more favorable CPM.

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 …