It was followed by Gannett’s flagship newsbrand USA Today (148.1 million, up 25% compared to April 2023), Visits to the news magazine’s website were up 149% year-on-year to 90.5 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. 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 news-based focus. The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking climbing one place into tenth (117.8 million visits), while the BBC was in rank 11 (112.7 million).
In August eight of the top ten publishers saw month-on-month decline, which marked a correction after an eventful July (in which the Paris Olympics kicked off, Joe Biden left the US presidential race and Donald Trump was shot). The Fox web traffic decline contrasts with the network’s reported surge in TV viewership around the election. People.com, the website of People magazine, saw the largest fall among the top ten, losing 10% of its audience compared with October.
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.
It was followed by financial news and advice site Moneywise (27.6 million visits, up 334% year-on-year). Visits to the news magazine’s website were up 198% compared to May 2023 to 95.5 million but it was beaten by two specialist newsbrands. Celebrity-focused newsbrand People.com was the fastest-growing news website in the US in May, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking. Celebrity-focused People.com saw the most year-on-year growth in the top ten, growing visits 37% to 142.1 million. All the top-ten sites by total visits grew year-on-year in July, seven of them by double-digit percentages.
Bid launched to extend Zimbabwe president’s term in office
It was followed by USA Today (185.3 million, up 41.6% year-on-year) and the website of People magazine (157.4 million, up 32.3%), which were the only other top-ten sites to see double-digit growth compared with 2023. For another month the fastest year-on-year grower on the top 50 was athlonsports.com (39 million visits, up 305.7%), followed by the AP and The Daily Dot (25.1 million, up 147.3%). All of the ten most-visited news sites in the US in November received more visits than they did a year earlier.
Meta and YouTube to face claims of social media addiction in children in landmark trial
- The UK-based Sun was the fastest faller, down 59% year on year to 23 million visits per month, according to Similarweb estimates.
- ABC News (83.5 million visits) saw the most growth between June and July, increasing traffic 81%.
- 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.
- The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
- The largest gains month-on month were at political and hard news sites, again reflecting a historic July for news.
“Our state can’t be complicit in the violations that ICE has been doing in places like Minneapolis,” Silva said. A federal appeals court panel cited similar grounds in July while striking down a New Jersey law that forbade agreements to operate immigrant detention facilities. In a little over a year, the number of detention facilities used by ICE nearly doubled to 212 sites spread across 47 states and territories. More than 70,000 immigrants were being detained by ICE as of late December, up from 40,000 when Trump took office, according to federal data. Meanwhile, legislatures in several Democratic-led states pressed forward with bills aimed at blocking or discouraging ICE facilities.
Business publisher Forbes (115.4 million, up 41.5%) saw the fastest rise, followed by People magazine (144.6 million, up 14.2%), The New York Times (up 8.9%) and the New York Post (142.1 million, up 8.1%). In terms of annual growth Athlon Sports and The Cooldown again topped the charts, with both seeing greater than 300% year-on-year growth. The New York Times extended its lead over CNN has the most popular news website in the US according to Press Gazette’s latest top-50 ranking. The US Sun has been affected by Google’s algorithm changes and reduced the size of its newsroom in September to target fewer key content areas. A third of the top 50 lost traffic year-over-year, with the largest decline seen at the US version of the UK’s un-paywalled Sun tabloid (23 million, down 63.8% year-over-year). Fox News (278.4 million, down 3.7%), aggregator MSN (214.3 million, down About EMSC 8.2%) and the New York Post (127.9 million, down 8.7%) lost traffic, meanwhile.
Dramatic performances on day 4 of Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
Substack, now the fourteenth biggest news site in the US, saw the biggest year-on-year boost in visits, up by almost half (42%) to 72.7 million visits in August compared to the same period in 2024. Just five of the top 50 US websites saw year-on-year traffic growth in August 2025, according to the latest data from Similarweb. In August, just five of the top 50 sites had year-on-year growth but in September 18 had an increase in visits compared to a year earlier. Among the biggest month-on-month web traffic declines were also the New York Post (down 15% to 97.7 million visits), followed by Newsweek (67.8 million) and CNN (297.1 million), both down 14%. Just one site among the top ten saw month-on-month growth, with Yahoo Finance (in fourth place) increasing its traffic 10% on September to 145.7 million visits. The New York Times was the only site of the top 11 most visited sites to see month-on-month growth, up 1% to 444.9 million visits.