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At Polls And Online, Americans Joined Election Day Fray

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:32:24 +0000

Surging online activity on Election Day accompanied record voter turn-out at the polls, as voters flocked to current events and news sites to follow election results.

Web traffic to sites within the “Current Events and Global News” category was up 27% on Election Day, versus the previous Tuesday (Oct. 28), Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

The candidates’ websites also drew healthy traffic on Election Day. Obama’s site had 1.2 million unique visitors on Nov. 4, while McCain’s site had 479,000 unique visitors.

Rank (by Nov. 4 UA)	Website	Unique Audience: Oct. 28, 2008 (in 000s)	Unique Audience: Nov. 4, 2008 (in 000s)	% Change
1	CNN Digital Network	8,496	12,847	51%
2	MSNBC Digital Network	5,959	12,114	103%
3	Yahoo! News	7,649	11,440	50%
4	Fox News Digital Network	3,937	5,745	46%
5	AOL News	4,050	4,411	9%
6	NYTimes.com	2,480	3,501	41%
7	Google News	2,053	3,255	59%
8	Tribune Newspapers	2,717	2,911	7%
9	washingtonpost.com	1,086	2,309	113%
10	USATODAY.com	1,326	2,009	52%
Source: Nielsen Online, Custom Analysis (October 28, 2008 and November 4, 2008).

Page views and time-per-person at current events and news websites also increased 103% and 61%, respectively, on Tuesday, according to Nielsen.

	Oct. 28, 2008	Nov. 4, 2008	% Growth
Unique Audience (in 000s)	33,461	42,380	27%
Page Views (in 000s)	427,385	868,310	103%
Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)	0:12:22	0:19:51	61%
Source: Nielsen Online, Custom Analysis (October 28, 2008 and November 4, 2008).

Check out historical unique audience data from Election Day 2004.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age, Silicon Alley Insider, Mediaweek, Media Life magazine, and Direct News.

Election Day 2004: Traffic To News, Politics Websites

admin — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:14:35 +0000

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.

Selected News & Political Websites	Election Day 2004: Unique Audience (Home Only, in 000s)
ABCNEWS Digital	519
AOL Elections	1,996
AOL News	992
Associated Press	1,035
CBS MarketWatch Network	365
CBS News	628
CNN	3,305
drudgereport.com	697
Electoral-vote.com	453
Fox News	1,179
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division	766
Google News	472
Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc.	533
Knight Ridder Digital	379
MSN Slate	412
MSNBC	2,770
NYTimes.com	680
Realclearpolitics.com	338
Tribune Newspapers	548
USATODAY.com	438
washingtonpost.com	320
WorldNow	297
Yahoo! News	2,626
Source: Nielsen Online (November 4, 2004).

Working Americans also flocked to CNN’s, MSNBC’s, and Yahoo! News’ websites for 2004 Election Day updates from the office, according to Nielsen Online.

Selected News & Political Websites	Election Day 2004: Unique Audience (Work Only, in 000s)
ABCNEWS Digital	759
AOL Elections	1,042
AOL News	677
Associated Press	1,286
CBS MarketWatch Network	868
CBS News	773
CNN	5,554
drudgereport.com	1,400
Electoral-vote.com	843
Fox News	1,743
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division	1,415
Google News	1,108
Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc.	1,017
Knight Ridder Digital	885
MSN Slate	801
MSNBC	4,180
NYTimes.com	1,295
Realclearpolitics.com	742
Tribune Newspapers	728
USATODAY.com	919
washingtonpost.com	871
WorldNow	518
Yahoo! News	3,408
Source: Nielsen Online (November 4, 2004).

Olympics, Conventions Boost August Traffic To News Sites

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:05:24 +0000

MSNBC Digital Network (MSNBC) was the top U.S.-based news and current events website in August, according to Nielsen Online.

Surging interest in the Beijing Olympics and the U.S. political conventions, which occupied back-to-back weeks in August, may have played a part in boosting MSNBC past its close competitor, Yahoo! News, Editor & Publisher reported Tuesday.

In August, MSNBC drew 52.2 million unique visitors — 12 million more than Yahoo!’s news portal, according to Nielsen. During the prior August, both Yahoo! News and CNN Digital Network edged past MSNBC.com, with 34.3 million and 31.7 million unique visitors, respectively, to MSNBC’s 29.6 million visitors.

Aug. 2008 Rank	Top 10 Online News Sites (ranked by unique users)	August 2008 Unique Traffic (in 000’s)	August 2007 Unique Traffic (in 000’s)
1	MSNBC Digital Network	52,212	29,564
2	Yahoo! News	40,787	34,277
3	CNN Digital Network	38,821	31,733
4	AOL News	23,114	21,209
5	NYTimes.com	19,862	13,078
6	Tribune Newspapers	17,652	12,550
7	Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division	14,454	13,720
8	Fox News Digital Network	13,902	8,465
9	ABCNEWS Digital Network	13,377	10,706
10	Google News	12,137	10,235
Source: The Nielsen Company (August 1 – 31, 2007 and August 1 - 31, 2008)

Most of the news websites in Nielsen’s top 30 ranking attracted larger online audiences in August 2008 than they had the prior August, and all but two of the top 10 sites showed double-digit percentages of growth.

Beyond the top 10, TheHuffingtonPost.com, ranked #23 by Nielsen, and the Daily News Online Edition (#30) showed especially large year-over-year audience growth.

TheHuffingtonPost.com saw its unique audience jump by 291% — from 1.3 million in August 2007 to 5.1 million last month. Meanwhile, the Daily News Online Edition grew by 103% — from 2.2 million unique visitors in August 2007 to 4.5 million in August 2008.