By: Jennifer Saba The vast majority of major newspaper sites lost momentum in online traffic following the peaks of user interest during the fall campaign for the White House, according to new figures from Nielsen Online (owned by E&P's parent company).
December monthly uniques at NYTimes.com, for example, declined 13% in December compared to November uniques. The Washington Post lost 15% and the Los Angeles Times shed 29%. Only one paper in the top 5 increased its online audience in December: USA Today.
The number of unique visitors in December declined 27% at Politico compared to November's stats. At The Washington Times, uniques in December dropped 12% compared to November. Dips were even steeper at the Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle sites.
Not all newspapers saw a reversal of online readers. The Chicago papers -- most likely benefiting from the hometown Obama angle and the Rod Blagojevich mess -- both reported increases in their audience in December. The Chicago Tribune was up 7% compared to November while the Chicago Sun-Times was up 21%.
Below is the latest list of top 30 newspaper Web sites based on U.S. panels and ranked by unique users for December. For comparison purposes, November monthly uniques are also provided. Keep in mind there are several reasons why traffic fluctuates.
Also keep in mind there are several reasons why traffic fluctuates, including news events and, in this case, major holidays.
For the top 30 online current events and global news destinations in December go
here.
Due to an error by Nielsen, the previous version of this story listed MercuryNews.com as No. 30. It is Philly.com.Newspaper -- Dec. '08 uniques -- Nov. '08 uniques NYTimes.com -- 18,187,000 -- 20,860,000
USATODAY.com -- 11,420,000 -- 10,359,000
washingtonpost.com -- 9,470,000 -- 11,132,000
LA Times -- 7,963,000 -- 11,136,000
Wall Street Journal Online -- 7,235,000 -- 7,427,000
Daily News Online Edition -- 5,883,000 -- 5,888,000
Chicago Tribune -- 5,235,000 -- 4,894,000
New York Post -- 4,557,000 -- 4,490,000
Boston.com -- 4,086,000 -- 5,436,000
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 3,503,000 -- 4,359,000
Chicago Sun-Times -- 3,239,000 -- 2,673,000
Politico -- 3,032,000 -- 4,136,000
The Houston Chronicle -- 2,990,000 -- 2,910,000
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 2,894,000 -- 2,821,000
Newsday -- 2,569,000 -- 3,206,000
The Detroit News -- 2,550,000 -- 1,995,000
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 2,533,000 -- 1,870,000
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 2,353,000 -- 2,694,000
Star Tribune -- 2,236,000 -- 3,563,000
Village Voice Media -- 2,122,000 -- 2,430,000
International Herald Tribune -- 2,097,000 -- 3,042,000
The Seattle Times -- 1,994,000 -- 1,725,000
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,881,000 -- **
Anchorage Daily News -- 1,622,000 -- **
Detroit Free Press -- 1,581,000 -- 1,918,000
The Washington Times -- 1,569,000 -- 1,712,000
Baltimore Sun -- 1,562,000 -- **
NJ.com -- 1,556,000 -- 2,356,000
MLive.com -- 1,416,000 -- 2,132,000
Philly.com -- 1,387,000 -- **
** Did not make the top 30 list in November 2008.
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