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 …

Nielsen Online analyst Jon Gibs takes a look at the news and newspaper industry in his latest post and welcomes your input.
“The economic situation we’re in has had many casualties, banks, the housing market, free soda, the works. But one of the most notable has been newspapers. I’ve posted in the past on the fate of the Christian Science Monitor, and the Rocky Mountain News has now said its goodbye as well. I think it is safe to say that these are not the end of a trend; they are …

According to Nielsen, in November, NYTimes.com was the top U.S.-based online newspaper site, while MSNBC Digital Network (MSNBC) was the top online current events and news destination, Editor & Publisher reported this week.
The NY Times’ website drew just over 20 million unique visitors in November — a 10% increase over unique traffic to the site last November.

In November, 10.3 million British Internet users visited at least one of the 10 most popular newspaper websites — up 23% from 8.3 million unique visitors during the same month a year ago.
Meanwhile, 5.5 million Brits visited at least one of the top 10 magazine websites — up 30% from 4.3 million unique visitors last year.
Among the top 10 newspaper websites, the Guardian’s site was most popular, drawing 3.5 million unique UK visitors in November.  The Mirror (92%), Independent (85%), and Daily Mail (65%) had the largest year-over-year growth.
Among the top 10 magazine websites, Auto Trader was easily the most popular, with 1.8 …

According to Nielsen Online, in September NYTimes.com was the top U.S.-based online newspaper site, while MSNBC Digital Network (MSNBC) was the top U.S. online news outlet, Editor & Publisher reported this week.
The NY Times’ website drew just over 20 million unique visitors in September — a 37% increase over unique traffic to the site last September.

Sept. 2008 Rank
Top 10 
Newspaper Sites
(ranked by unique users)
Sept. 2008 Unique Traffic
(in 000’s)
% Growth
Vs. Sept. 2007 Unique Traffic

1
NYTimes.com
20,068
37%

2
washingtonpost.com
12,956
43%

3
USATODAY.com
11,439
33%

4
LA Times
10,022
102%

5
Wall Street Journal Online
9,047
94%

6
Boston.com
8,610
122%

7
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle
5,129
18%

8
New York Post
4,815
98%

9
Politico
4,605
219%

10
Chicago Tribune
4,558
46%

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 2008).

Meanwhile, MSNBC saw 44% year over year growth, …

U.S. newspaper websites attracted more visitors in 2008, CNNMoney.com reported Tuesday.
During the second quarter of this year, newspaper sites saw a 12% increase in unique visitors, compared with the same time period a year ago, according to data compiled by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).
In all, newspaper sites had a combined average of 66.4 million unique U.S. visitors per month during Q2 2008 — up from 59.2 million in Q2 2007, Nielsen and the NAA reported.

Can the mobile Internet revive struggling local newspapers? 
The New York Times reported Monday that Encinitas, Calif.-based Verve Wireless, which helps newspaper publishers create news websites for cellphones, thinks it can.
Verve has already created mobile compatible versions of 4,000 U.S. newspapers — and it recently received a $3 million investment from the Associated Press.  The newspaper industry is betting that Verve’s mobile approach will help to boost dwindling newspaper readership, the Times reported.
The story noted that Americans are increasingly surfing the Web via their mobile phones: of the 95 million mobile …

Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday that more than 80% of the top online newspapers in the U.S. recorded increases in the number of unique visitors to their websites during June — compared to the same month a year ago, according to Nielsen Online.
New York’s Daily News Online saw the largest percentage gain — its audience grew by 109% year-over-year to 3.8 million unique visitors in June.  Michigan-based MLive.com rose 80% to 1.5 million unique visitors, while sites owned by two New York City-based news outlets, Newsday and Village Voice Media, saw audience …