While newspapers across the country face a declining number of subscribers, traffic to the top 10 online newspapers grew 16 percent in December 2008 versus a year ago, according to new research from Nielsen Online.
NYTimes.com continued to be the number one online newspaper, with 18.2 million unique visitors.  USATODAY.com and washingotnpost.com took maintained the number two and three ranks, respectively.

Site
Dec-07 (000)
Dec-08 (000)
% Change

Top 10 Online Newspapers
34,602
40,093
16

NYTimes.com
17,177
18,187
6

USATODAY.com
9,939
11,420
15

washingtonpost.com
8,478
9,470
12

LA Times
4,607
7,963
73

Wall Street Journal Online
5,409
7,235
34

Daily News Online Edition
2,956
5,883
99

Chicago Tribune
3,891
5,235
35

New York Post
2,851
4,557
60

Boston.com
4,364
4,086
-6

SFGate.com/SF Chronicle
2,785
3,503
26

Source: Nielsen Online (January 26, 2009)

“December was an extremely active month in terms …

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, …