Newspapers Produce 7 Of Top 20 News Sites

By: Carl Sullivan Only 7 of the top 20 news Web sites in the U.S. during the month of May were affiliated with newspapers, down from eight during the previous month, according to statistics from Nielsen/NetRatings.

The top news sites in terms of audience were MSNBC.com, CNN.com, Yahoo! News, and ABCNews.com. NYTimes.com ranked fifth in May, dropping from No. 4 in April. Gannett Newspapers' combined Web sites again ranked at No. 6, followed by washingtonpost.com in seventh place.

The rankings of current events and news sites was based on a panel of 60,000-plus Americans accessing the Web at work and home.

A number of newspaper-affiliated sites also showed up in the top 20 directories/local guides category as ranked by Nielsen/NetRatings. In that list, the top three sites were CitySearch/Ticketmaster Online, Superpages.com, and Yahoo! Yellow Pages.

In April, Knight Ridder Digital's Real Cities network ranked at No. 9 on this list, but the group disappeared from the top 20 during May. Boston.com came in at No. 12; E.W. Scripps Newspapers, No. 14; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, No. 15; NWsource.com (Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer), No. 16; nj.com (Advance Internet), No. 17; and TBO.com (Media General), No. 20.

Top 20 Current Events & Global News Sites
	Unique Audience	Time Per Person
Brand or Channel	(000)	(hh:mm:ss)
MSNBC	15,812	0:27:33
CNN General News	14,705	0:25:46
Yahoo! News	11,919	0:20:57
ABC News	8,044	0:11:44
The New York Times	7,366	0:36:26
Gannett Newspapers	6,248	0:14:59
washingtonpost.com	5,780	0:21:00
MSN Slate	3,715	0:15:55
Time Magazine	3,594	0:05:29
Fox News	3,139	0:32:36
CBS News	2,574	0:06:26
New York Post	2,310	0:09:12
Cox Newspapers	2,109	0:16:40
Netscape News	2,005	0:11:27
USA Today	1,910	0:08:17
Belo Newspapers	1,787	0:10:46
iWon News	1,715	0:36:53
Associated Press	1,642	0:06:14
drudgereport.com	1,625	0:52:09
BBC	1,589	0:04:25

Top 20 Directories/Local Guides Sites
	Unique Audience	Time Per Person
Brand or Channel	(000)	(hh:mm:ss)
CitySearch/Ticketmaster Online	14,468	0:20:37
Superpages.com	8,119	0:07:44
Yahoo! Yellow Pages	6,719	0:08:56
switchboard.com	4,802	0:08:28
SMARTpages	4,304	0:05:09
Government Guide	4,282	0:04:02
US Search.com	4,227	0:03:35
Yahoo! People	3,899	0:04:23
Yahoo! Local	3,140	0:00:52
MSN City Guide	2,817	0:02:12
Whitepages.com	2,584	0:03:43
Boston.com	2,453	0:26:44
MSN Yellow Pages	2,408	0:01:19
E.W. Scripps Newspapers	2,274	0:15:00
Atlanta Journal-Constitution	1,597	0:16:18
NWsource.com	1,183	0:12:37
nj.com	893	0:19:29
areaguides.net	858	0:02:59
HitBox.com	713	0:04:06
TBO.com	681	0:07:31
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings. Data based on audience measurement of more than 60,000 U.S. panelists with home and work Net access. May 2002