Among the ten most-visited news sites in the US, Forbes (118.4 million visits) saw the greatest growth, increasing 42.7% compared with October 2023 and 4.7% compared with September 2024. In the broader top 50 both climate news site The Cooldown (25.4 million, up 123.1% month-on-month) and sports news site Athlon Sports (54.1 million, up 38.7%) saw significant growth compared with November. Among the ten most-visited news sites in the US almost every publisher posted traffic gains in January, with the UK-based BBC in particular (125.8 million visits, up 13%) re-entering the top-ten. The California newspaper, which has seen traffic dip in recent months, recorded 42.3 million visitors last month, up 118% compared with December 2024 according to Similarweb. Climate news site The Cooldown (51.6 million visits, up 52%) was the fastest grower month on month, followed by The Atlantic (30.4 million, up 43%).
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All but two of the ten most-visited sites in the US in September saw year-on-year traffic growth. Another notable riser was local publisher SF Gate (up six places to 36th on the back of a 0.4% month-on-month traffic drop, to 29.3 million) and libertarian blog Zero Hedge (25.2 million), which rose five places to 40th despite a 7.7% traffic decline. The only site to see a larger rise in visits compared with August was CBS News, where traffic rose 20.7% to 92.5 million, translating to a five-place rise on the charts. September saw the re-entry of The Atlantic into the top 50 (visits down 0.2% month-on-month but up 15.2% year-on-year to 22.9 million) after it dropped off in August. The only riser within the top ten, besides new entrant Forbes, was People, which was up one spot despite visits dropping 9.5% month-on-month to 147.2 million.
The Los Angeles Times (23.7 million visits) and Washington Post (102.4 million) saw the sixth and eighth largest drops, falling by 7.9% and 6.6% respectively compared with October. Among the top ten most-visited sites specifically, all but two sites saw some year-on-year growth. The biggest traffic pullback in the top ten was at USA Today (143.6 million, down 29.4%), followed by CNN (356.6 million, down 22.5%) and Fox News (253.6 million, down 17%). Some 32 sites grew their total number of website visits year on year, according to Similarweb. Business Insider (56.8 million) and Huffpost (43.7 million) each received 25% less traffic this January than January last year. CNN (399.1 million, up 12%) and USA Today (158.6 million, up 10.4%) increased their visits by double-digit percentage points, while the New York Post (127.9 million, down 10%) the only top-ten site to lose traffic.
The biggest year-on-year drop among the top ten was seen at Gannett’s USA Today, which shed 17% of its March 2024 traffic to attract 134.7 million visits last month. Three in five of the top 50 news websites in the US recorded year-on-year growth, with the biggest percentage increase seen at sports news site Athlon Sports. Rival title The Mirror, which is yet to feature in the top 50 US news websites, grew 631% year on year to 15.1 million visits in April 2025 according to Similarweb data. Substack rose to 19th position with growth of 42.5% year on year to 67.7 million visits in the US for its network of newsletter-driven websites. Only 15 out of the top 50 news websites in the US grew traffic year on year in May, according to the latest data from Similarweb. More than half (29) of the 50 biggest news websites in the US saw a month-on-month decline.
On the other end of the scale the fastest year-on-year traffic losses were seen by the Los Angeles Times (25.8 million, down 30% on October 2023), the Daily Mail (104.1 million, down 22.8%) and Fox News. The fastest-growing top-ten site month-on-month was USA Today, followed by aggregator Google News (122.4 million, up 8.6%) and People. At the start of October the site deployed a new paywall, which does not appear to have immediately hurt its web visits. CNN (425 million) remains the most-visited news site in the US despite an 11.8% year-on-year decrease in traffic — the only fall among the top ten besides Fox News (258.1 million), which lost 22.5% of its October 2023 traffic. Thirty websites in the top 50 also saw their visits grow year-on-year in October, as well as eight of the top ten.
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The sites in the list are based on Similarweb’s classification of news and media publishers, although Press Gazette refines the list to exclude some sites with a less journalistic focus. Across the top 50, 11 sites saw year-on-year growth, an improvement from just four seeing an increase in November. Forbes recorded the third highest month-on-month increase in visits, up 15% to 59.3 million. Northern Colorado’s Weld County, one of the fastest growing counties in the state, is looking to evolve their economic diversity in the decades to come.
Yahoo Finance and People both shuffled up the board one spot to sixth and seventh place respectively, pushing the New York Post (150 million visits, down 7% year-on-year) down to eighth. The New York Times maintained its position in second place, with 361.8 million visits, and Fox News was third on 293 million. After Athlon the fastest-growing site in the US year-on-year was The Daily Dot (up 174.2% year-on-year to 29.2 million), which entered the top 50 for the first time in August.
Men’s Journal was the fastest growing top-50 news website in the US in May, quadrupling its traffic Zašto sam prešla na hranu koju je jela moja baka compared to the same month a year earlier. Of the 50 biggest news websites by visits in June, 34 saw month-on-month growth (up from 15 in May) and 29 saw a year-on-year increase (up from 14 last month). Al.com saw the biggest month-on-month growth at 14%, and was one of just six websites to see an increase in visits compared to July.
- Fox also lost approximately 1% of its US web visits in October compared with the month before.
- Country music star Eric Church talks with „CBS Mornings” about his „Free the Machine Tour” and how music can bring people together amid division.
- The biggest month-on-month decline was seen at NBC News, dropping 30% to 67.7 million visits.
- While some say Facebook referral traffic has returned this year, others complain that the addition of AI-written summaries to Google search results has deeply impacted click-through rates to articles.
- Far-right website Gateway Pundit, which entered the chart at 48th last month, has in turn fallen out of the top 50.
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September was a busier news month, including the assassination of right-wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk. Syndication website MSN saw the biggest drop year on year among the top ten by more than a third (39.5% to 144 million visits). Athlon Sports followed Forbes in year-on-year traffic decline with a drop in visits of 48% to 290.3 million, along with AP News (down 46% to 78.5 million visits). Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips told Press Gazette last month the brand has lost traffic to articles it was previously known for, such as “Who’s the richest person in the world?
British news site The Independent (34.8 million), which claimed in November to have become the biggest British-born news site in the US according to Comscore data, also notched 70.4% year-on-year growth. All but one of the ten most-visited news sites in the US, and almost four in five of the top 50, grew their visits compared with September. Most of the top newsbrands in the US saw web traffic growth in October following two months of declines. Year-on-year the fastest-growing top ten news site was the AP, which saw 162.5% more visits in November 2024 than it did in the same month in 2023. Most of the ten most-visited news sites in the US benefitted from the November surge, with The New York Times (528.6 million, up 11% month-on-month), USA Today (203.5 million, up 9.8%) and CNN (460 million, up 8.2%) all notching notable gains. Three in five of the top 50 most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic grow compared with October — although there were some notable exceptions.