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in cable news sites
Time.com sees largest overall jump in traffic
By Marty Beard
When the terrorist attacks were launched against the U.S. one week ago Tuesday, CNN was the cable news network Americans turned to first for the latest developments.
As it turns out, CNN's preeminence as a news source extended to its web site as well.
Traffic to most major news sites increased dramatically for the week, but CNN.com led the way among the cable news sites, according to figures from Jupiter Media Metrix.
With 4.6 million unique visitors a day, CNN.com handily outpaced its nearest rival, MSNBC.com, which drew 4.2 million unique visitors a day.
In the weeks preceding the attacks, CNN.com was lagging behind MSNBC.com, with about 1.3 million unique visitors to MSNBC.com's 1.6 million.
CNN.com's leap in traffic represents a 255 percent increase over its average traffic for the previous three weeks, as compared to a 167 percent increase for MSNBC.com.
For the week on cable, CNN had a daytime audience of 2.2 million households, almost equaling that of MSNBC and Fox News combined. In primetime, CNN drew three million households.
Meanwhile, FoxNews.com posted the second-biggest increase in traffic among all news sites and the biggest among cable news sites.
For the week ending Sept. 16, the number of unique visitors to FoxNews.com jumped 437 percent from traffic levels of the previous week.
Among the networks’ web sites, ABCNews.com posted the biggest gain in traffic, with a 321 percent increase.
But just about every news site, from weekly magazines to newspapers and television networks, saw a significant spike in traffic as a result of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Time.com saw the biggest increase of all.
Its traffic was up 653 percent for the week ending Sept. 16, when compared to the average of the previous three weeks.
Time.com was alone among the weekly newsmagazine sites in showing a significant increase in traffic for the week ending Sept. 16, according to Jupiter Media Metrix’s data. Neither U.S. News & World Report nor Newsweek appeared on its chart of sites showing major traffic increases.
Web sites of local newspapers also saw dramatic rises in their traffic volume.
Newspaper sites were led by Knight Ridder’s Philly.com, which aggregates content from both Philadelphia dailies and functions as a city portal. Traffic to Philly.com was 334 percent greater during the week ending Sept. 16 than it was during the preceding weeks.
Philly.com’s sibling, Miami.com, the site of the Miami Herald, also posted a sharp increase, with 237 percent more traffic than usual.
Also showing dramatic traffic gains were web-only news outlets. Slate, drafting off traffic generated by parent company Microsoft and its MSN portal, saw traffic increase by 385 percent, to 678,000 visitors, as opposed to an average 117,000 unique visitors the three weeks before.
The number of unique visitors heading to DrudgeReport.com increased 53 percent, to 374,000 unique visitors, from 245,000 a week for the three weeks prior to the attacks.
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Traffic Gains at News Sites |
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|
Site |
Unique visitors, week ending 8/26 (000) |
Unique visitors, week ending 9/2 (000) |
Unique visitors, week ending 9/9 (000) |
Unique visitors, week ending 9/16 (000) |
3-Week Avg (wks 1-3) (000) |
% Gain - 9/16 vs. 3-wk Avg |
|
1. Time.com |
77 |
112 |
111 |
753 |
100 |
653 |
|
2. FoxNews.com |
141 |
107 |
104 |
630 |
117 |
437 |
|
3. Slate.com |
117 |
200 |
102 |
678 |
140 |
385 |
|
4. Philly.com |
32 |
27 |
37 |
139 |
32 |
334 |
|
5. ABCNews.com * |
298 |
325 |
272 |
1257 |
298 |
321 |
|
6. BBC.co.uk |
114 |
131 |
146 |
526 |
130 |
304 |
|
7. CNN.com |
1,337 |
1,283 |
1,264 |
4,601 |
1,295 |
255 |
|
8. Miami.com |
46 |
53 |
39 |
155 |
46 |
237 |
|
9. AP.org |
84 |
70 |
83 |
229 |
79 |
190 |
|
10. CBS.com Sites* |
387 |
368 |
381 |
1045 |
379 |
176 |
|
11. MSNBC.com |
1,677 |
1,564 |
1,489 |
4,205 |
1,577 |
167 |
|
12. NPR.org |
61 |
70 |
47 |
152 |
59 |
156 |
|
13. Newsmax.com |
50 |
46 |
57 |
116 |
51 |
127 |
|
14. ChicagoTribune.com |
70 |
50 |
64 |
139 |
61 |
127 |
|
15. WashingtonPost.com |
416 |
384 |
390 |
872 |
397 |
120 |
|
16. Guardian.co.uk |
44 |
32 |
33 |
78 |
36 |
115 |
|
17. Boston.com |
119 |
118 |
95 |
212 |
111 |
92 |
|
18. NYTimes.com |
581 |
608 |
658 |
1,127 |
616 |
83 |
|
19. NJ.com |
54 |
32 |
37 |
74 |
41 |
80 |
|
20. Chron.com |
55 |
54 |
62 |
102 |
57 |
79 |
|
21. USAToday.com |
403 |
374 |
464 |
715 |
414 |
73 |
|
22. NYPost.com |
115 |
140 |
85 |
190 |
113 |
68 |
|
23. LA Times* |
197 |
180 |
151 |
295 |
176 |
68 |
|
24. WorldnetDaily.com |
67 |
58 |
56 |
101 |
60 |
67 |
|
25. Charlotte.com |
48 |
46 |
33 |
67 |
42 |
58 |
|
26. DrudgeReport.com |
246 |
277 |
212 |
374 |
245 |
53 |
|
27. WSJ.com |
80 |
102 |
83 |
125 |
88 |
42 |
|
28. NYDailyNews.com |
39 |
54 |
25 |
55 |
39 |
40 |
|
29. StarTribune.com |
93 |
88 |
77 |
120 |
86 |
40 |
|
30. Military.com |
56 |
49 |
49 |
68 |
51 |
32 |
|
31. LasVegas.com Sites* |
45 |
44 |
50 |
59 |
46 |
27 |
|
32. Newsday.com |
69 |
113 |
48 |
97 |
77 |
27 |
|
33. SFGate* |
124 |
104 |
143 |
152 |
124 |
23 |
|
34. DallasNews.com |
65 |
73 |
74 |
80 |
71 |
13 |
|
35. Realcities.com |
112 |
89 |
90 |
109 |
97 |
12 |
|
36. DetroitFreepress.com |
101 |
70 |
48 |
82 |
73 |
12 |
|
37. Discovery.com |
173 |
130 |
174 |
174 |
159 |
9 |
|
38. Sacbee.com |
55 |
43 |
52 |
54 |
50 |
8 |
|
39. SunTimes.com |
82 |
80 |
81 |
85 |
81 |
5 |
| *Represents
an aggregation of commonly owned/branded domain names. Source: Jupiter Media Metrix |
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September 21, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty
Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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