Surfin' Safari: Top 30 Newspaper Sites for August

By: Jennifer Saba The race for the White House and the 2008 Olympic games gave newspaper Web sites a leg up in August, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online. Almost all of the top 30 sites reported increases in unique audience in August compared to the same period a year ago.

Just look at Politico, which soared 156% to 3.6 million uniques. The numbers bumped up the site on the list from No. 17 in July to No. 10 in August.

The Baltimore Sun -- home paper of Olympian Michael Phelps -- grew 127% in August to 2.4 million uniques.

The Washington Post has held the No. 3 position since at least January 2008. Not in August. The site's unique audience rose 25% to 11.2 million edging out USAToday.com for No. 2 on the list.

Only four Web sites reported losses in unique audience in August: Newsday (down 2%), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (down 29%), AZCentral.com (down 28%), and Village Voice Media (down 27%).

Below is the list of the top 30 newspaper Web sites provided by Nielsen. The percent change compares August 2008 uniques with August 2007 uniques. Also keep in mind there are several reasons why traffic fluctuates, including news events.

July stats can be found here.

NYTimes.com -- 19,862,000 -- 52%
washingtonpost.com -- 11,249,000 -- 25%
USATODAY.com -- 10,403,000 -- 9%
Los Angeles Times -- 8,941,000 -- 66%
Wall Street Journal Online -- 7,637,000 -- 51%

Chicago Tribune -- 4,739,000 -- 56%
Daily News Online Edition -- 4,507,000 -- 103%
Boston.com -- 4,479,000 -- 4%
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 4,477,000 -- 25%
Politico -- 3,630,000 -- 156%

New York Post -- 3,324,000 -- 8%
Chicago Sun-Times -- 3,303,000 -- 30%
The Houston Chronicle -- 3,254,000 -- 20%
International Herald Tribune -- 3,165,000 -- 71%
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 2,905,000 -- 53%

Newsday -- 2,898,000 -- (-2%)
Star Tribune, Minneapolis -- 2,578,000 -- 6%
The Baltimore Sun -- 2,454,000 -- 127%
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 2,340,000 -- (-29%)
Philly.com -- 1,969,000 -- 12%

The Seattle Times -- 1,905,000 -- 1%
Azcentral.com -- 1,842,000 -- (-28%)
Detroit Free Press -- 1,838,000 -- 61%
Village Voice Media -- 1,828,000 -- (-27%)
KansasCity.com -- 1,748,000 -- 84%

Ottaway Newspapers -- 1,711,000 -- 50%
NJ.com -- 1,695,000 -- 15%
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 1,684,000 -- 17%
Sun-Sentinel -- 1,677,000 -- 26%
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,645,000 -- 10%