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. Traditional hard news and politics sites saw the largest web traffic growth in November amid the 2024 US presidential election. November was a big month traffic-wise for many US news websites helped by the 5 November presidential election. Among the 50 most-visited news sites in the country only 11 grew their visits month-on-month in December.

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The US Sun followed on both growth metrics, up 52% year on year and 59% month on month to 34.9 million visits. In contrast to the annual figures, however, all of the ten biggest sites saw month-on-month growth of at least 3% in January. It was followed by People (161.4 million visits, up 16% year-on-year) and both were the only large sites to see year-on-year growth for the second month in a row. The Independent also featured among the fastest-growing websites year-on-year coming in fifth place having seen visits up 40% compared to last January. It was followed by independently run consumer-focused science news site sciencealert.com (24.4 million visits, up 66% month-on-month). Month-on-month, both Newsweek (up 31% compared to February) and The Cool Down were beaten by publishing group Advance Local’s Alabama-focused site al.com (22.6 million visits, up 67% month-on-month).

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Fox News (278.4 million, down 3.7%), aggregator MSN (214.3 million, down 8.2%) and the New York Post (127.9 million, down 8.7%) lost traffic, meanwhile. The Gateway Pundit and another site supportive of Donald Trump, Breitbart, were also among the fastest growers year-on-year, up 54% and 26% respectively. The biggest year-on-year decline in the top ten was seen at aggregator MSN (196.4 million, down 8%) and USA Today (also down 8%). The shallowest fall in the top ten was seen at People magazine (150.6 million), which nonetheless lost 5% of its traffic. USA Today (128.8 million, down 19%) was the fastest faller among the group, followed by CNN (345.1 million, down 14%) and BBC News (112.3 million, down 11%). However they are also in spite of an eventful February for US news which included an airplane crash in Washington DC and an Oval Office row between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

• The New York Post (up 12%) saw the biggest monthly gain, followed by The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post (122 million) and CNN, which each saw a 9% month-on-month boost in visits.
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• After dropping out of modern rap’s defining conflict, the Fayetteville MC contemplates the making and breaking of a legacy.
• Across the top 50, 14 sites saw a month-on-month increase in traffic, with US-based politics site The Hill leading growth (up 45% to 44.4 million visits).
• It was followed by financial news and advice site Moneywise (27.6 million visits, up 334% year-on-year).

MSNBC (29.2 million) increased visits by 66%, NBC News (128 million) by 62%, Axios (40 million) by 54% and The Atlantic (28.2 million) by 52%. Mail Online (136.1 million) gains a place, rising to ninth, and Newsweek (133.3 million) leaps from 16th to tenth place. The figures for July are the first Press Gazette has published since Similarweb updated its data model. The site received 374% more visits in August 2024 than in August 2023, reaching 29.6 million. It was followed by UK news site The Independent (up six places with 37.6 million) and the Los Angeles Times (up five places with 28.5 million).

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Residents, however, are very unhappy with the plans and want to preserve the church Our Members instead, but demolition has already begun. The Rader Memorial United Methodist Church was a staple in the El Portal community, but soon the land will become a private school. Many students and community members claim that aside from the night the attack happened, they’ve received no updates from the university about the investigation. An emergency service company hired by the city of Troy, Michigan, last year has officially been answering 911 calls for a month now, and residents want a progress report.

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. Publishers have complained in recent years about falling referral traffic from Google and Facebook. The Times of Israel fell back out of the top 50 after its visits almost doubled in June to enter in 43rd place. Meanwhile the vast majority (44) saw fewer visits than they did a year earlier in July 2024. Some content remains free to all users regardless of whether they have hit the paywall, including select global breaking news stories. The BBC launched a dynamic paywall for users in the US at the end of June, charging $8.99 (£6.55) per month or $49.99 (£36.40) per year.

The shooting left nine people dead and at least 25 wounded, with one student saying he barricaded in a classroom for two hours. Members of the remote community have spoken of their fear and uncertainty after nine people were killed. Eight people have been killed and 25 injured in the shootings at a school and home in a rural community in western Canada, police say.