EXCLUSIVE: Top 30 News Sites for August -- Yahoo Tops CNN, MSNBC, AOL, NYT

By: Jennifer Saba Only three newspaper groups made the top 10 current events Web sites in August, according to figures supplied by Nielsen Online.

One of those sites is a stand-alone newspaper, NYTimes.com, which ranked No. 5 with 17.1 million uniques in August. Tribune Newspapers came in at No. 7 (15.8 million uniques) while Gannett Newspapers was slotted at No. 10 (12.9 million uniques).

Below are the top 30 current events and global news destinations for the month of August ranked by unique users. The percent change compares August 2009 uniques to August 2008 uniques. Please note that several factors including news events can cause swings in traffic. Additionally, The Wall Street Journal is included on another Nielsen list, which tracks business and financial sites. (Nielsen Online and E&P are owned by the same company.)

The data should be viewed with caution, Nielsen emphasized. As of June 2009, the measurement firm vastly expanded its panel -- making it eight times larger. As a result, Nielsen warns that year-over-year trending could be affected for some sites and that the below information only should be used directionally.

For July's list go here.

Yahoo! News -- 43,469,000 -- 7%
CNN Digital Network -- 38,024,000 -- (-2%)
MSNBC Digital Network -- 36,450,000 -- (-30%)
AOL News -- 26,309,000 -- 14%
NYTimes.com -- 17,183,000 -- (-13%)

Fox News Digital Network -- 16,999,000 --- 22%
Tribune Newspapers -- 15,801,000 -- (-10%)
ABCNEWS Digital Network -- 13,873,000 -- 4%
Google News -- 13,442,000 -- 11%
Gannett Newspapers/Newspaper Division -- 12,981,000 -- (-10%)

McClatchy Newspaper Network -- 12,454,000 -- 17%
washingtonpost.com -- 11,681,000 -- 4%
CBS News Digital Network -- 10,278,000 -- 9%
Advance Internet -- 9,808,000 -- 24%
USATODAY.com -- 9,787,000 -- (-6%)

Daily News Online Edition -- 8,573,000 -- 90%
MediaNews Group Newspapers -- 8,316,000 -- 11%
Hearst Newspapers Digital -- 8,013,000 -- (-5%)
TheHuffingtonPost.com -- 7,768,000 -- 52%
WorldNow -- 7,671,000 -- (-4%)

Examiner.com -- 7,569,000 -- 342%
The Slate Group Websites -- 6,837,000 -- 37%
BBC -- 6,767,000 -- 28%
Topix -- 5,617,000 -- (-21%)
NBC Local Media -- 5,427,000 -- N/A

Cox Newspapers -- 5,373,000 -- 9%
Boston.com -- 4,981,000 -- 11%
New York Post Holdings -- 4,843,000 -- 46%
Gannett Broadcasting -- 4,753,000 -- (-8%)
MailOnline -- 4,630,000 -- (-4%)