Visit Editor & Publisher for the full list of the top 30 news sites and online newspaper sites.

“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 the first casualties of a much longer downward decline…

…I would like to invite all of the members of this community to post their ideas on the future of news, particularly as it is related to emerging media (i.e. not TV). I’d like to start by giving an example from the New York Times online. They have provided an interactive map taking a look at immigration patterns into the US over the past 120 years. What I think is impressive is that they have made this the centerpiece for ongoing online discussions among readers; they have journalists write pieces about the trends and they have op-ed writing columns. They are integrating all of the strengths a news source can provide: great data collection, objective reporting, opinion, and adding social media.”

Read the whole post to submit your thoughts on the future of news.

The NY Times’ website drew just over 20 million unique visitors in November — a 10% increase over unique traffic to the site last November.

Meanwhile, MSNBC saw 41.9% year over year growth, reaching 41.8 million unique visitors last month, according to Nielsen. 

MSNBC edged past CNN Digital Network (CNN), which drew 41.5 million unique visitors during the month — a 27% increase over its November 2007 unique audience.

Despite the conclusion of the U.S. presidential election, The Huffington Post (ranked #21) continued to see the fastest growth among the top 30 sites. The site’s unique audience increased 270% over November 2007 — to 7 million unique visitors.  However, Huffington’s unique audience declined from October 2008, when the site’s unique visitors grew by 448% year over year to 8.1 million.

Fox News Digital Network was the second fastest growing site among the top 30 — up 131% over November 2007.

Among the top 30 newspaper sites, the Minneapolis Star Tribune (ranked #12) saw the fastest growth.  The site’s unique audience increased 265% over November 2007 — to 3.5 million unique visitors. 

The Detroit News (ranked #25) was the second fastest growing site among the to 30 — up 232% over November 2007.

Overall, all but one of the top 30 online news outlets and all but four of the top 30 newspaper websites attracted larger online audiences in November 2008 than they did the prior November.

View the top 30 newspaper websites for November in Editor & Publisher.

View the top 30 online news outlets for November in Editor & Publisher.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings on MSNBC.com.

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 million unique UK visitors.  BBC Good Food (+153%) and Radio Times (+76%) were the fastest growing online magazines among the top ten.

Most Popular Newspaper Websites (UK Only): November 2008

Most Popular Magazine Websites (UK Only): November 2008

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in New Media Age, Brand Republic, and MediaWeek.

The NY Times’ website drew just over 20 million unique visitors in September — a 37% increase over unique traffic to the site last September.

Meanwhile, MSNBC saw 44% year over year growth, reaching 43.2 million unique visitors in September, according to Nielsen.

Surging interest in the U.S. presidential campaign likely drove growth for several U.S. news sites in September. 

The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska cracked Nielsen’s top 30 newspaper websites ranking for the first time, following a 928% jump in unique visitors over last September.  Sudden demand for news on Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in September may have driven that dramatic increase. 

Two politics-centric sites, Politico.com (+219%) and TheHuffingtonPost.com (+457%), also saw notably large year over year percentage growth in September.

Meanwhile, Boston.com’s 122% above average growth can perhaps be attributed to Autumn baseball fever in the Hub.

Overall, all but three of the top 30 online news outlets, and all but one of the top 30 newspaper websites, attracted larger online audiences in September 2008 than they did the prior September.

View the top 30 newspaper websites for September in Editor & Publisher.

View the top 30 online news outlets for September in Editor & Publisher.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the (Toronto) Globe and Mail.

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.

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 Internet subscribers in the U.S., 40 million actively use their phones to go online — twice the number of two years ago, according to Nielsen Mobile.

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 gains of 73% and 70%, respectively. 

The Houston Chronicle, which fell 44% in June, and Ottaway Newspapers (-30%) experienced the most significant declines.