By: Jennifer Saba The dog days of summer arrived early for newspaper Web sites, with several leading outlets showing declines in unique visitor in May.
At NYTimes.com, for example, during the month of May total unique visitors fell 21% to 16.8 million year-over-year, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online. The site experienced a decline in the prior month as well. In
April, monthly uniques were down 8% to 16.5 million.
The New York Times disputed the April and May data from Nielsen, claiming it was inconsistent with three other independent sources and the paper's own internal data, which showed growth, said spokeswoman Diane McNulty.
NYTimes.com was not the only site to experience a fall-off in year-over-year uniques. Visitors at The Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle Web sites fell 30% and 35%, respectively in May. Politico took an 11% hit.
Even the Detroit Free Press, which was up 74% in April, had a slowdown in uniques. In May the number of visitors declined 14% to 1.4 million. The paper, along with its joint-operating partner, the Detroit News, cut its frequency to three days a week at the end of March.
The papers though have seen early success with its e-editions, which is accessed online but is not counted in the domains of detroitnews.com or freep.com, explained Janet Hasson, the Detroit Media Partnership's senior vice president of audience development and strategy, told E&P in May. During the first two weeks of May, the e-editions averaged about 300,000 visitors. In April, 798,000 visitors accessed the e-edition.
There were some strong gainers, however (see chart).
Below is the latest list of top 30 newspaper Web sites based on U.S. panels and ranked by unique audience for May. The percent change compares May 2009 with May 2008 data. Keep in mind there are several reasons why traffic fluctuates, including news events. (Nielsen Online and E&P share the same parent company.)
Site -- May '09 Uniques -- YoY % changeNYTimes.com -- 16,837,000 -- (-21%)
USATODAY.com -- 10,337,000 -- (-4%)
washingtonpost.com -- 10,069,000 -- 9%
LA Times -- 8,264,000 -- 14%
Wall Street Journal Online -- 7,216,000 -- 20%
N.Y. Daily News Online Edition -- 6,435,000 -- 49%
Chicago Tribune -- 4,869,000 -- 10%
New York Post -- 4,847,000 -- 22%
Boston.com -- 4,397,000 -- (-11%)
Newsday -- 3,871,000 -- 14%
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 3,750,000 -- 12%
Politico -- 3,141,000 -- (-11%)
NJ.com -- 2,924,000 -- 133%
Chicago Sun-Times -- 2,802,000 -- 6%
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 2,572,000 -- (-20%)
Baltimore Sun -- 2,262,000 -- 28%
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 2,255,000 -- (-30%)
The Houston Chronicle -- 2,212,000 -- (-35%)
Philly.com -- 2,113,000 -- 41%
KansasCity.com -- 2,110,000 -- 78%
The Washington Times -- 1,969,000 -- 65%
Star Tribune -- 1,953,000 -- (-16%)
MercuryNews.com -- 1,866,000 -- 27%
tampabay.com -- 1,727,000 -- 7%
The Seattle Times -- 1,691,000 -- (-12%)
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,674,000 -- 17%
MiamiHerald.com -- 1,623,000 -- 59%
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 1,496,000 -- (-4%)
Detroit Free Press -- 1,442,000 -- (-14%)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- 1,442,000 -- 71%
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