The BBC recorded 100.2 million website visits in the US in July, according to digital intelligence platform Similarweb. Visits to bbc.com in the US were down 15% in July as the British public service broadcaster introduced a paywall to users in America. India Times (up 33% to 26.9 million), aggregator Newsbreak (32.2 million) and Alabama-focused al.com (18.9 million) also saw double-digit year-on-year growth in August.
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The biggest riser already on the charts was progressive news site Raw Story, which climbed eight spots to 37th place on the back of a 24% month-on-month traffic increase to 33.2 million. The contraction is particularly pronounced among the top ten US news sites by traffic, where eight publishers saw visits drop compared to July. Going the opposite direction, however, was the US outpost of fellow British publisher The Sun (22.2 million visits), which dropped 15 places to 50th on the back of 34.9% month-on-month and 65.1% year-on-year traffic declines. Athlon Sports (up 218.4% year-on-year to 35 million) was the fastest riser in the ranks of the top 50, jumping eight places to 33rd on the back of 18% month-on-month traffic growth, the second most growth of any publisher in the top 50. Also possibly reflecting interest in the US presidential election, the fastest monthly growth among the top 50 was seen at Real Clear Politics, where visits were up nearly 40% compared with September. Among the broader top 50 news sites in the US, sports news site athlonsports.com (34.7 million) continued its reign as the fastest-growing publisher, nearly quadrupling its web visits compared to October 2023.
Among the ten biggest sites by number of visits, celebrity newsbrand People was the fastest growing year-on-year for a second month (140.2 million visits, up 31%). In September, the news division saw a spike as it increased 54% month on month (the biggest leap compared to August in the whole top 50 ranking) and 5% year on year to 96.6 million. Among the ten biggest news websites by volume of visits, USA Today was the fastest-growing for a third month in a row. Visits to the UK publisher’s site were up 29% month-on-month to 24.3 million, making it the second-fastest growing news site in the US, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb. Newsweek was once again the fastest-growing news website in the US in June 2023, notching 15% month-on-month growth to 110.2 million visits. All but eight of the 50 most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic growth in March compared to February, with a third seeing at least 10% growth in the longer month.
Newsweek was followed by Axios (25 million visits, up 88% year-on-year) and Politico (50.7 million, up 51%). Visits to People.com were up 27% year-on-year to reach 145.7 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. The remainder of the top ten either declined year-on-year or in the case of the New York Times (up 1%) and the New York Post (down 1%) registered virtually no change in traffic. Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. AP News (98.8 million, up 21%) and Variety (43.8 million, up 19%) also saw growth of over or close to a fifth.
Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US. The Atlantic recorded 30.4 million visits in March according to Similarweb, meaning it was also up 30% compared to March 2024. The Sun was the fastest falling title in Press Gazette’s top-50 ranking, dropping 61.5% year on year to 22.1 million visits. Men’s Journal rose 338% year on year to 23.5 million visits and sports news website Athlon Sports grew 144/7% to 40.7 million visits. Most of the top ten sites saw steep year-on-year drops with CNN down 27.9% year on year to 311.7 million visits , Fox News down 23.9% year on year and the New York Post down 27%.
But the picture is rosier over a longer timespan, with three-quarters of the top 50 publishers seeing year-on-year growth in visits in August. The two top ten sites to see year-on-year traffic declines were Fox News (down 0.7%) and Mail Online, where visits dropped 7.2%. New top ten entrant Forbes was also the fastest-growing site in the group, seeing visits rise 48% compared with September 2023.
Mail Online (136.1 million) gains a place, rising to ninth, and Newsweek (133.3 million) leaps from 16th to tenth place. The figures for July are the first Press Gazette has published since Similarweb updated its data model. The site received 374% more visits in August 2024 than in https://ascleiden.nl/content/new-titles?page=198 August 2023, reaching 29.6 million. It was followed by UK news site The Independent (up six places with 37.6 million) and the Los Angeles Times (up five places with 28.5 million).
The biggest increases in traffic were at USA Today (34%), CNN (33%), Newsweek (21%), Fox News (20%) and The New York Times (15%). It nonetheless remained the most-visited news site in the US, a position it has held since Similarweb updated its data model in June and pushed the site ahead of The New York Times. It was followed by The Independent (down 12.4% month-on-month) and Business Insider (64.3 million, down 11.8%).