2023 was a brutal year for the journalism industry, with at least 8,000 job cuts in the UK, US and Canada, according to Press Gazette’s analysis.

The tide continued in 2024, with around 1,000 people affected by closures and rounds of redundancies in January alone.

August saw several publishers making layoffs including Gannett, Time, Axios, Tampa Bay Times, NYPR and Hollywood Reporter.

As of 27 September, Press Gazette estimates there have been at least 2,500 jobs cut in the UK and US media this year so far.

All types of publisher features on the below list: from legacy newspaper brands to digital natives, and from commercial operations to non-profit newsrooms.

Many of the cutbacks at the start of this year have affected US media outlets but April saw a ramp up in the UK with GB News, Open Democracy, the Mail and The Times all facing redundancies of various numbers alongside The Wall Street Journal stateside.

Other UK job losses have come at Pink News, i-D Magazine and Design Week, and as part of international cuts to the likes of Vice and Business Insider.

Press Gazette will keep this page updated, with the latest additions at the top, as the definitive guide to job announced media job cuts made throughout 2024.

The list excludes any job cuts announced in 2023, which featured in our round-up of last year’s redundancies.

We will also add any significant hiring rounds to this page.

Journalism job cuts in 2024: Up-to-date list

November 2024

Associated Press – 8% of total staff

The Associated Press is planning to make cuts affecting 8% of staff, of which less than half would impact news staff, Press Gazette understands. Most of those affected are expected to be in the US.

As part of this, the AP has reached a tentative agreement with the News Media Guild to extend a voluntary buyout offer to some union staff in the US. According to a note from the AP News Guild first reported by New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin, this offer applies to 121 staff aged 54.5 and over.

The Guild note said: “The company said a decline in revenue necessitated cuts company-wide among guild-covered, administrative and international staff. For Guild staff, the company said reductions could be fully achieved by offering voluntary buyouts.”

It added: “The company maintains that the buyouts are necessary to avoid layoffs and have told the Guild that reductions will be made throughout AP’s global bureaus administrative staff.”

An AP spokesperson told Press Gazette: “The Associated Press has informed the world through accurate, nonpartisan journalism for nearly two centuries – enduring not by chance, but by being intentional about adapting to industry changes. We are taking proactive steps, including making some staff reductions, as we focus on meeting the evolving needs of our customers.

“This is about ensuring AP’s important role as the only truly independent news organization at scale during a period of transformation in the media industry.”

Dotdash Meredith – 53 people

Dotdash Meredith is laying off 53 people or about 1.5% of its staff, mostly affecting those working on print products.

As reported by Axios, chief executive Neil Vogel told staff: “While we are incredibly proud of our print products and our subscriber bases are stable (or in some cases even growing), the print advertising business remains challenged. Today’s actions are directly in response to this.”

He added: “We are not closing any print magazines, nor do we anticipate doing so, and we will continue to invest in our print assets.”

G/O Media – Two people

Two writers were laid off from G/O Media’s gaming website Kotaku on 7 November, according to Aftermath.

Managing editor Carolyn Petit wrote on Bluesky: “G/O Media’s management is once again punishing workers for its own bad decisions. Management mandated that some writers stick to ‘service’ posts, and now that the numbers aren’t panning out (surprise, surprise!), two of those writers have been laid off. Cruel and misguided.”

National World – Nine people

UK regional publisher National World plans to cut nine journalist jobs in Sunderland and Manchester, according to the NUJ, although two other roles will be created.

It said two of five journalists’ roles in Sunderland would be cut under current proposals, along with one of two reporter roles in Manchester.

In addition six editor roles across eight websites would be cut, the NUJ said. Two new Metro editor roles would be created for the sites which cover Blackpool, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, South Shields and Sunderland.

Chris Morley, NUJ Northern and Midlands Senior Organiser said: “Journalists at the titles are already overstretched due to inadequate staffing levels, and these proposed cuts in Sunderland and Manchester would place intolerable strain on those that remain.

“National World has justified these severe cuts by saying that page views are down, but without saying how fewer overworked journalists with less time and more stress are expected to produce more of the quality local journalism that these communities want to read.

“The proposed cutback in the number of editors who serve National World websites throughout the North of England would inevitably reduce responsiveness to local issues and concerns.

“We will be strongly supporting our members through this process and call on the company to immediately rethink the insufficient time for consultation that has been given.”

The National World group chapel passed a motion on Thursday 7 November which stated: “This chapel is dismayed at proposals by National World to cut reporting roles in Sunderland by 40%, cutting reporters in Manchester by 50%, and the effect it will have on local reporting. It also notes with concern proposals to reduce local editors, and the effect of stress on already overworked journalists at the titles producing local journalism.

“This has been exacerbated by inadequate time for consultation. The chapel calls upon the company to rethink the proposals and the effect on quality local journalism and calls for proper consultation with the NUJ and local staff about the effects of these cuts.”

City AM – ‘Small number’ of people

Free London business newspaper City AM is proposing axing its Monday print edition and putting a small number of staff at risk of redundancy.

A City AM spokesperson said: “We will continue to build the City AM brand through digital and social channels, not least through the new City AM Studios in London, while focusing print publication on the midweek days which attract the greatest footfall amongst our target audience.”

Read the full story here.

October 2024

Fandom – Unspecified number

A round of layoffs has taken place at digital publisher Fandom, which owns brands like Metacritic, GameFAQs, Screen Junkies and TV Guide. Market changes were reportedly blamed and one staffer said they believed it was the fourth set of layoffs at the publisher since 2022.

GovExec – 16 people

Sixteen people are being let go from four divisions at GovExec media group, which owns titles including US state and local government publication Route Fifty and Government Executive.

Route Fifty reporter Dan Vock said he had been laid off, adding: “It’s a shame; I had some pretty good elections stories in the works.”

Oahu Publications – 13 people

Hawaii news group Oahu Publications, owner of the island’s biggest newsbrand the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, is cutting 13 employees, including a reported six in editorial.

Hawaii News Now reported that the cuts include the Star-Advertiser’s last two staff photographers.

The Pacific Media Workers Guild said: “These losses cut deep at our ability to continue serving communities across Hawaii.”

Oahu chief executive Dennis Francis said: “On Friday, OPI made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our workforce to strengthen the company’s financial future and better position us to continue serving our readers and advertisers. OPI employs 254 people, and out of our entire workforce, 13 team members will be departing between now and November 15.

“While job loss decisions are always difficult to make, the evolution of newspaper journalism has hit everyone in the industry hard, and OPI is no exception. For local journalism to succeed and for OPI to remain the Hawaii-produced paper our community relies on, we must maintain a resilient financial business.”

Oahu was bought by Carpenter Media Group earlier this year which has made cuts at other newspaper groups across the US soon after buying them including Pamplin Media Group and Sound Publishing.

Variety – Three people

Three journalists were laid off from Variety including longtime deputy editor Meredith Woerner.

Woerner said on 17 October: “Yesterday was my last day at Variety. I was included in a round of layoffs and… I’m heartbroken. Working at Variety for the past seven years has been a privilege and an adventure.”

She added: “I am tremendously grateful to the many Variety colleagues I’ve worked with over the years. But special attention must be paid to Variety’s web team. I’ve worked in several newsrooms nationwide, and this group stands out as the most passionate, collaborative, kind, and brilliant collection of people I’ve ever seen.”

It came two months after at least four layoffs were made at Penske sister title The Hollywood Reporter, and just over a year after a further four job cuts at Variety.

BBC – 210 people

BBC News is planning to cut 185 jobs and create 55 new roles, making a net reduction of 130 roles.

The broadcaster is proposing to end interview programme Hardtalk and “flagship” tech show Click as well as the Asian Network’s bespoke news service and the 5.30am News Briefing on Radio 4.

The cuts would also mean domestic BBC radio stations would begin airing World Service summaries between midnight and 5.30am, the merging of four “On The Day” newsdesk divisions to create a “single, story-led structure” and BBC 5 Live no longer producing its own overnight news programme.

Another 25 post closures are proposed in the media operations team which supports the production of the BBC’s news, radio and some sport services.

Read the full Press Gazette story here.

NBC News – A ‘handful’ of people

Semafor media editor Max Tani reported that there have been a “handful” of layoffs across the NBCU News Group including at CNBC.

ABC News – 75 people

About 75 people at Disney-owned ABC News in the US are being laid off, as first reported by Variety.

The layoffs are believed to be split evenly between ABC’s national newsgathering operation and its local stations but no current programming will cease as a result.

ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic told staff in a memo: “Across the various ranks of ABC News, a limited number of our colleagues are being impacted by staff reductions. As you know, this has been happening across the broader company and the industry at large in recent weeks and months.

“For us, it means shaping a team that embraces the new media landscape and evolves along with it, which we must do to continue serving our viewers.”

September 2024

Scripps – More than 200 people

US broadcaster Scripps has told staff it plans to shut down its national linear TV news business, resulting in the loss of more than 200 jobs.

CEO and president Adam Symson told staff that Scripps News’ 24/7 national news programming will wind down from 15 November although it will continue to produce output for streaming and digital platforms with live weekday coverage.

“A core reporting team, based primarily in Washington DC, also will serve Scripps’ local stations’ news operations with national and international journalism,” he said.

Symson explained that revenue in linear TV has not followed audience growth.

“Over the last two years, Scripps News’ live anchored coverage and documentary programming have grown its linear television audience, but the prospects for the necessary revenue growth haven’t materialised, despite our sales teams’ efforts. Scripps News’ current financial position is what has led me to the decision to scale back our approach to 24-hour news and over-the-air coverage.

“Amidst an already difficult linear television advertising marketplace, many brands and agencies have decided that advertising around national news is just too risky for them given the polarised nature of this country, no matter the accolades and credentials a news organisation like Scripps receives for its objectivity. I vehemently disagree, but it is hurting Scripss News, along with every other national linear and digital news outlet.”

Symson said about 50 Scripps News staffers will remain to cover local news and produce the streaming and digital content, prioritising “field reporting, our strong political coverage, investigative reporting and our digital and social media presence”.

The national Scripps News network was launched in January 2023 through a relaunch of Newsy, which the company acquired in 2014 and later took it through several evolutions including a streaming network and a free 24/7 linear network.

Gamurs Group – 30 people

Gaming media publisher Gamurs Group has cut 30 staff, blaming “unprecedented shifts” in the industry and in particular “the release of Google’s helpful content update and the decline in Google search and Discover traffic across all websites”.

Read the full Press Gazette story here.

Lee Enterprises – Around 20 people

US local news publisher Lee Enterprises is cutting ten roles from The Buffalo News, which has a newsroom of 55, according to the Investigative Post. The cuts include five buyouts or layoffs, and five vacant positions being eliminated.

Not long before that, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid off six members of staff while the managing editor and enterprise editor of the Missoulian was laid off and the Richmond Times-Dispatch cut two veteran sports writers.

Future – Unknown number

Job losses are undergoing a consultation process at Future plc amid the closure of titles including iMore, 3D World, All About Space and Total 911.

The titles, plus some events and Future’s external video production unit, were deemed “low to no growth assets”.

Read the full Press Gazette story here.

Daily Mail US – Up to 20 people

Up to 10% of the more than 200 editorial staff based at Mail Online in the US have been cut, with the publisher calling the redundancies “difficult but necessary”.

The publisher said it would “enable us to continue to invest in areas where we can grow our audience”.

The Sun US – Unknown number

A number of editorial staff at The Sun US have been cut. The number of jobs affected was not confirmed but Press Gazette understands more people were laid off than in the Daily Mail US cuts made on the same day (above).

The publisher, which launched its dedicated US website for The Sun in late 2019, said it needed to “reset the strategy and resize the team to secure the long term, sustainable future for The Sun’s business in the US”.

News Corp’s recent financial results cited “lower digital advertising mainly driven by a decline in traffic at some mastheads due to platform-related changes”, although this was not referring to The Sun alone.

BBC – 115 people

The BBC is planning to cut up to 115 editorial and production jobs in the Nations and Regions.

The cuts affect 40 to 45 jobs at BBC Local in England, about 25 to 30 each in Wales and Scotland, and ten to 12 in Northern Ireland.

Read the full Press Gazette story here.

August 2024

Gannett – 74 people

Gannett announced on 26 August it planned to shut down its product reviews site Reviewed.

State filings later revealed by Mass Live showed the company intends to lay off 74 employees based in Cambridge, Massachusetts – where Reviewed is headquartered – by 14 November.

A spokesperson for Reviewed told The Verge: “After careful consideration and evaluation of our Reviewed business, we have decided to close the operation. We extend our sincere gratitude to our employees who have provided consumers with trusted product reviews.”

They added: “The closure is a business decision influenced significantly by the fact that Reviewed relies heavily on search traffic and Google’s constant algorithm changes have degraded our current business model.”

Time – 22 people

Time is cutting 22 jobs across editorial, technology, sales, marketing and Time Studios, chief executive Jessica Sibley told staff on 20 August.

In an email first shared by Semafor media editor Max Tani, Sibley said: “This decision was not made lightly, but it is necessary to build a sustainable company in order to further Time’s mission.”

She said Time is facing “significant challenges from heightened competition for decreased advertising budgets to drastic shifts in consumer behaviour, changes to search and social algorithms, and overall economic uncertainty”.

Sibley said Time will put more focus on the climate, AI and health “areas of leadership where we are having success today”.

Meanwhile it is transitioning to a B2B revenue strategy with a focus on direct-sold advertising sponsorships and strategic partnerships as well as events.

The Hollywood Reporter – At least four people

The Hollywood Reporter laid off four people on Friday 16 August: executive managing editor Sudie Redmond, deputy editor Degen Pener, copy editor and film critic Sheri Linden and video editor Colin Burgess, according to The Wrap.

It follows a “small number” of editorial layoffs made in June (see below).

All Your Screens reported in July that at that point The Hollywood Reporter had “lost 11 full and part-time employees since September 2023,” many of whom were long-term employees, “while adding 15 full and part-time employees over the same period”.

The TV website claimed The Hollywood Reporter is considering changing direction from covering the industry to a “more entertainment lifestyle direction”.

There have also reportedly been an unspecified number of layoffs on parent company Penske Media Group’s product and business development side.

New York Public Radio – Around 30 people

New York Public Radio, which owns local news website Gothamist and public radio station WNYC, is aiming to lay off at least 8% of staff to help with a forthcoming $10m budget deficit, staff were told on Wednesday 14 August.

This is estimated to mean around 30 people, and staff are being asked to come forward as volunteers for layoffs before compulsory ones come into play.

It comes less than a year since New York Public Radio cut about 20 jobs and cancelled two podcasts.

NYPR president and chief executive LaFontaine Oliver told staff in a memo, reported by NYC news site Hell Gate, that: “While we have continued to control what we can control to avoid this moment—including the staff cuts in the fall of 2023, re-introducing a hiring hold, eliminating senior executive roles, forgoing annual increases in 2023, and keeping our paid internship program on hold—it hasn’t been enough to outpace increased expenses and declines in revenue.

“Our deficit continues to climb, and with our Q4 reconciliation complete and the books closed on FY24, we are now projecting a deficit for FY25 that is on course to once again reach more than $10 million by the end of the year.”

Oliver made the point that NYPR is not alone in this difficulty, saying: “For profit, nonprofit, and public media outlets alike are continuing to sustain losses wrought by declines in advertising, shifting audience behaviors, disruptions in the tech space, stubbornly high interest rates, and overall uncertainty in the markets.”

He said advertising at WNYC and classical music station WQXR has seen a “rapid decline” while “competition for philanthropic support is stiff, not only from our peers in nonprofit news outlets who are accelerating their pursuit of these same dollars in the face of increased challenges. Membership, long the hallmark of the public media model, is being strongly impacted by shifts from legacy media to digital platforms.”

Axios – About 50 people

Axios is planning to lay off about 50 people, or 10% of the company, it told staff on Tuesday 6 August.

In a memo leaked to The New York Times, chief executive Jim VandeHei said: “We’re making some difficult changes to adapt fast to a rapidly changing media landscape.”

He broke the news of the 50 positions being cut in an Axios smart brevity style “why it matters” section, explaining it was “to get ahead of tectonic shifts in the media, technology and reader needs/habits.

“This is a painful but necessary move to tighten our strategic focus and shift investment to our core growth areas.”

VandeHei said Axios will grow revenue and audience year-on-year in 2024 but “we need to stay steps ahead of changes unfolding fast across American media”.

VandeHei took full responsibility for the move, saying: “This decision is mine. It’s difficult to make, but exponentially more difficult for our departing colleagues. This isn’t a reflection on anyone’s work – it’s because of changes in the media business. If you’re understandably upset by the decision, please direct your frustration at me.”

He also described now as “the most difficult moment for media in our lifetime,” pointing to “shifting reader attention and behaviour” across platforms.

He added: “AI is pushing us to a technological inflection point where models can summarise news, at the same time Facebook, X and search are faltering as reliable traffic standbys.”

VandeHei promised “thoughtful severance packages” and said the last day for most laid-off employees would be Friday 9 August.

Tampa Bay Times – 20% of payroll (potentially up to 50 people)

Tampa Bay Times, a for-profit news title owned by the non-profit Poynter Institute that has won 14 Pulitzer Prizes, has told staff it wants to reduce its payroll by 20% and is offering buyouts.

The newsbrand has about 270 full-time employees, of whom 100 are in the newsroom. They were told layoffs will follow later in August if targets for savings are not met.

Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty told staff he is cutting his pay by 20% until the end of the year while other senior executives are taking temporary pay cuts of 10%.

He added: “While sharing this news as we mark our 140th anniversary is disappointing, we are committed to ensuring the Times can continue its dedication to robust local journalism.

“I am confident we will emerge from this challenging period as a more focused and sustainable company.”

National World – Five people

Five jobs are expected to be cut at The Scotsman: three specialist writers, a feature writer and a business reporter.

A National Union of Journalists organiser said: “National World management claim they are trying to turn the company into a ‘premium content business’, but these job cuts fall on those same talented, award-winning journalists who consistently produce excellent Scottish journalism.”

Read our full story here.

July 2024

Newsquest – Two people

Two journalists have been made redundant from We Are Sunderland, a dedicated site for news and analysis about Sunderland FC launched by Newsquest’s The Northern Echo in January.

One of the two journalists affected, Matty Hewitt, wrote on X: “Bitterly disappointed to say I’ll no longer be working for @WeAreSunlun after being made redundant… We’ve given it our all since launching back in January and covering #SAFC again has been a blast. It’s never dull.”

Newsquest told Hold The Front Page the site was not closing but did not share details about how it would operate going forward.

On Thursday 25 July, the day after Hewitt’s post, the We Are Sunderland X account told users: “Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel for free to stay up to date with all the latest #SAFC news and podcasts.”

Newsquest previously launched two other dedicated club websites, Rangers Review and The Celtic Way both in Glasgow, which have seen success and built subscriber bases.

Portland Tribune – Unknown number

Carpenter Media Group laid off an unknown number of staff at former Pamplin Media Group titles in Oregon which it bought a month earlier. The titles included the Portland Tribune and about two dozen other newspapers.

BDG – Nine staff

Bustle Digital Group (BDG) is laying off nine people, Adweek reported on 12 July.

The editors in chief of Romper and The Zoe Report were reportedly among those affected amid a consolidation of BDG’s parenting and lifestyle units.

More layoffs are expected to follow in the commercial teams.

LAist – 21 staff

LAist, a nonprofit newsroom that also houses Los Angeles radio station KPCC-FM, has cut 21 staff through layoffs and buyouts, The Wrap reported on 11 July.

The organisation’s chief content officer Kristen Muller told staff in a note in May that the cuts were aimed at lessening a $4-5m budget shortfall predicted for the next two years.

“Our efforts to reach and engage people on digital channels are succeeding. But the revenue is not following pace,” Muller wrote.

LAist earlier cut 12% of its workforce in June 2023.

CNN – Around 100 jobs

CNN chief executive Mark Thompson told staff on Wednesday 10 July that the organisation will cut around 100 jobs, equivalent to approximately 3% of its total workforce.

As well as the layoffs, Thompson explained some of the changes he plans to make at the organisation, saying he wants a subscription offering up and running before the end of the year, that the newsroom will be reorganised to integrate CNN’s domestic and international operations, and bringing more video products to the web. The Hollywood Reporter published Thompson’s letter to staff in full.

The cuts come a year and a half after the last round of major cuts at CNN under the tenure of previous chief executive Chris Licht.

Carpenter Media Group – 62 people

Carpenter Media Group has laid off a reported 62 people across local news publisher Sound Publishing, which it bought months earlier.

Reports from March indicated Sound Publishing parent Black Press had about 1,200 employees in the US and Canada. The acquisition represented Carpenter’s first move outside of the South East US and Texas.

The Everett Post, a rival to Everett Herald which was one of the affected newspapers, reported on 5 August Herald staff went on a two-day strike and while the company “refused to spare any jobs” they secured ” optional buyouts, increased severance packages and raises for remaining staff”. Ultimately 12 positions at the newspaper were cut, described as roughly half the newsroom.

The cutbacks reportedly amounted to 25% of staff in Washington State, a stronghold of Sound Publishing.

June 2024

The Daily Beast – At least 25 people

The Daily Beast has implemented voluntary buyouts accepted by 25 unionised staffers, or almost 75% of union members in the newsroom.

According to The Wrap those taking buyouts include media reporter Justin Baragona, political investigations reporter Jose Pagliery, senior national reporter Pilar Melendez and senior reporter Emily Shugerman. The outlet reported that senior staffers are heavily represented in the departures.

A further round of layoffs for non-unionised journalists is expected to follow.

A Daily Beast spokesperson said: “With such a generous severance offer, we anticipated a large number of employees would take the voluntary buyout. We are not at all surprised.

“These numbers allow us to move forward with our plan to secure the financial future of the Beast and rebuild a newsroom that will thrive in the current landscape. It’s always difficult when dedicated employees choose to step away. We thank them and wish them the best in their future endeavors.”

Evening Standard – 150 jobs

About 150 jobs are expected to be cut as a result of the Evening Standard’s planned closure of its daily newspaper edition and relaunch as a weekly title. A date for the changes and end to the daily paper has not yet been set.

The proposed redundancies reportedly include 70 editorial roles. The Standard newsroom is currently made up of around 120 full-time journalists, meaning it would be more than halved.

The cuts are also expected to affect more than 40 back office jobs and around 45 roles in its printing and distribution operations, according to The Telegraph.

The Hollywood Reporter – ‘Small number’

A “small number” of editorial layoffs were made at The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday 13 June, according to The Wrap.

Those affected included longtime TV editor Lesley Goldberg and senior editor of diversity and inclusion Rebecca Sun.

Goldberg said on X: “To the next generation of THR ‘legacies’, continue to know your worth and do your best to find work-life balance and listen to the words of wisdom of those you respect most. As for me, I’m holding onto two of the most valuable things I’ve learned in my time at THR: good things will always follow bad situations, and Henry Winkler really is as wonderful as everyone who has ever met him says he is.”

Informa Tech – Unknown number

Informa has closed two long-running B2B titles: Digital TV Europe and Television Business International.

Informa would not confirm the number of jobs affected but a farewell message from TBI editor Richard Middleton referenced several staff members including a deputy editor, senior sales manager, marketing chief art director and product manager.

Digital TV Europe staff at the time of the closure appeared to include an associate editor and a strategic account manager.

EO Media Group – 28 people

EO Media Group, an Oregon-based publisher of 15 newspapers and two magazines, said it planned to cut back the publication of several titles in July and lay off 28 employees.

It also planned to cut the hours of 19 other staff members, Oregon Live reported.

May 2024

Wall Street Journal – At least 8 people

At least eight journalists have been laid off amid further cuts at the Wall Street Journal amid a change in how it covers US news “and how we write about the big subjects that grip America”.

US news will no longer be a standalone coverage area and the East Coast, mid-US and West Coast regional bureaux are closing.

“Many” of the US news reporters are moving into other teams in the newsroom “in which they are natural fits: real estate moves to finance and economics; reporters covering state and local politics join the politics team; education moves to life and work. And some reporters will move to a new National Affairs team that will take on big topics – abortion, immigration, land use, guns, race,” editor Emma Tucker told staff.

The “speed and trending” desk is converting into a new breaking news desk and the layoffs come from this team as well as the US news team. NPR reported that at least eight people’s jobs are affected.

Journalists stuck post-it notes on the windows of Tucker’s office in protest at the job cuts.

A WSJ spokesperson said: “Our editor-in-chief is reshaping our newsroom with an eye towards digital growth, subscription growth and high-quality journalism. While we recognise change can be difficult, it is necessary to ensure we have the right structure in place to support our objectives.”

April 2024

Reader’s Digest – Unknown number

Reader’s Digest magazine has closed in the UK, its editor-in-chief of six years announced on 29 April.

Eva Mackevic said: “Unfortunately, the company just couldn’t withstand the financial pressures of today’s unforgiving magazine publishing landscape and has ceased to trade.”

The number of full-time jobs affected has not been confirmed. Mackevic told freelance writers waiting to be paid that they should be hearing from insolvency practitioners.

GB News – More than 40 people

GB News is aiming to cut 40 roles, initially via voluntary redundancies. Staff are being offered up to two months’ salary and possible payment in lieu of notice to entice them at the initial stage.

Update: The FT later reported that more than 30 volunteers came forward, meaning GB News cut its headcount from 295 to “well below 250”.

Wall Street Journal – At least 11 people

At least 11 people have been affected in the second round of layoffs at The Wall Street Journal so far this year, including four producers on the visuals desk, two social media editors, two video journalists, a senior video journalist, a video producer, and one reporter, according to The Daily Beast.

It was reported that some of the video employees were laid off as a result of the end to a Google partnership that funded the development of Youtube channels based around individual journalists or subject matters.

Open Democracy – Around 10 people

Several Open Democracy journalists announced on 10 April that they were being made redundant – including its head of news, news editor, political correspondent and two reporters.

Press Gazette understands the cuts are also affecting the commercial side of the non-profit organisation.

Chief executive Satbir Singh and editor-in-chief Aman Sethi said Open Democracy has been hit by “wider industry trends that include rising inflation and an uncertain funding environment” and which have been exacerbated by the end to some of its funding.

The business expects to return to a break even position once the redundancy round is complete.

Mail Sport – Up to 15

Mail Sport journalists were told on 10 April of an upcoming “significant restructuring” as the brand’s transition to prioritising digital continues.

Mail Newspapers global publisher of sport Lee Clayton told staff, in a memo seen by Press Gazette, that there need to be “changes in how we are set up as a desk with a digital team leading the commissioning process, supported by newspaper experts who can publish print editions to tight deadlines.

“With that in mind, we will be embarking on a significant restructuring of the department over the coming weeks.”

Press Gazette subsequently reported that the restructuring was believed to affect up to 15 sports staff including cricket correspondent Paul Newman, racing correspondent Marcus Townend, Spanish football reporter Pete Jenson and chief sports reporter Matt Hughes, as well as several production staff.

The Times – At least one person

Times chief football writer of eight years Henry Winter announced on 10 April he has been made redundant.

At the time of writing Press Gazette has not yet been able to confirm if Winter was the only person affected or if other roles have been made redundant at the same time.

March 2024

i-D Magazine – 8 people

Redundancies have been made in the UK at fashion title i-D magazine, which was saved from a struggling Vice Media by model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss in November.

Eight staff in editorial or social media were let go, as first reported by Puck News fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman and confirmed by Press Gazette.

The magazine is said to be moving towards a reliance on contributors and five of those eight people have accepted a contributor role, Press Gazette understands.

Around 19 people remain on staff in the UK, including about eight in editorial and social plus the publishing director. There are plans for i-D to return to print in the autumn.

Kloss formed Bedford Media to run i-D. Bedford Media announced on 28 March it is also relaunching Life magazine under an agreement with Dotdash Meredith on a regular, but unspecified, schedule.

Deadspin – Around 11 people

G/O Media has sold sports blog Deadspin to European start-up Lineup Publishing.

All staff have been laid off as a result of the sale as Lineup plans to go with a “different content approach”. Around 11 people are affected, according to Adweek.

A memo from G/O Media chief executive Jim Spanfeller, reported by Dailymail.com, said: “I do want to make it clear that we were not actively shopping Deadspin.

“The rationale behind the decision to sell included a variety of important factors that include the buyer’s editorial plans for the brand, tough competition in the sports journalism sector, and a valuation that reflected a sizable premium from our original purchase price for the site.”

He added: “Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand.

“While the new owners plan to be reverential to Deadspin’s unique voice, they plan to take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage. This unfortunately means that we will be parting ways with those impacted staff members, who were notified earlier today.”

Center for Public Integrity – Around 11 people

US non-profit news organisation the Center for Public Integrity, founded in 1989, reportedly laid off staff on 8 March.

The Center’s union said 11 people were being laid off, “more than half” the union’s unit. The New York Times later said less than half the overall staff were affected.

The NYT reported about a week earlier that the newsroom fell about $2.5m short of its budget goal of around $6m in 2023 and it was considering merging with a competitor or shutting down.

TalkTV – Unknown number

An unspecified number of redundancies were expected at TalkTV as News UK pulled the plug on its linear TV format to focus on cross-platform video content.

Update: TalkTV staff later began tweeting about their redundancies with TalkTV’s last day on linear on 26 April.

February 2024

Cord Cutters News – Three people

Cord Cutters News, a US-based website centred on streaming services and devices and largely funded by affiliate links, has laid off three people.

Editor-in-chief Roger Cheng announced on 23 February he and two reporters were leaving after their positions were “eliminated amid the company’s shift in focus to Youtube”.

“I had fun learning about the ins and outs of the streaming world, and proud of some of the bigger stories I wrote,” Cheng said.

The site’s owner Luke Bouma, who launched Cord Cutters News ten years ago, wrote on the website on the same day that they plan to “give a renewed focus on helping people know all their options to save money on TV, phone, and related product and service reviews” and “focus more heavily on our YouTube channels, including our main Cord Cutters News channel and our second channel The Breakdown with Luke, where you can find reviews of a range of products”.

WAMU – 15 people

Washington DC’s NPR affiliate WAMU is laying off 15 people and shutting down local news site DCist, Axios revealed on 23 February.

Ten new positions are being added at the same time as it invests in and priorities audio.

Chief content officer Michael Tribble told Axios: “We feel like this is the best way for us to engage and build loyalty.”

Vice – ‘Several hundred’ people

Vice told staff it was “eliminating several hundred positions” on 22 February and will no longer publish content on vice.com.

Vice chief executive Bruce Dixon said in a memo it was “no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously” and they will instead “look to partner with established media companies to distribute our digital content, including news, on their global platforms, as we fully transition to a studio model”.

Engadget – Ten people

Yahoo-owned tech site Engadget is laying off ten people and restructuring into two teams: “news and features” focusing on traffic growth and “reviews and buying advice” reporting to commerce leaders.

Editor-in-chief Dana Wollman and managing editor Terrence O’Brien announced that they were among the departures. Wollman noted: “To its credit, Yahoo has a decent severance program.”

A spokesperson told The Verge on 22 February: “Engadget has played a vital role in tech journalism for 20 years and we’re confident that these efficiencies will support future growth and set us up for the long-term as we continue to deliver the best experience for our readers.”

Buzzfeed – 16% of staff (possibly up to 190 people)

Buzzfeed is planning to cut 16% of staff, Axios revealed on 21 February, making savings of $23m. The plan follows the sale of its entertainment brand Complex for $108.6m to livestream shopping platform NTWRK, after acquiring it for $300m in 2021.

At the end of 2022 Buzzfeed had 1,368 employees. It laid off about 180 people in April 2023 with the closure of Buzzfeed News, so these latest layoffs may have affected up to around 190 people.

Now This – At least 26 people

US-based social media news publisher Now This made redundancies on 15 February, although the total is not yet known.

The journalists laid off included Mike Madden, who led the Now This Tiktok team, senior writer PJ Evans, and senior producer Jasmine Amjad.

The Now This journalists’ union said 26, or 50% of their members, had been affected.

The Intercept – 15 people

US investigative non-profit The Intercept, which was co-founded by Glenn Greenwald, laid off 15 people on 15 February. Editor-in-chief Roger Hodge left in the changes.

A memo to staff said it was “facing significant financial challenges” like other media outlets and needs to make changes to become sustainable.

It said: “With the board’s approval, the leadership team has a plan that we believe paves the way for a more sustainable financial foundation for The Intercept so that we can continue to produce high-quality investigative journalism.

“We have also implemented other cost-saving measures, including significant salary cuts for the leadership team and the flattening of the management team, to minimise the impact as much as possible.”

CBS News – Around 20 people

Around 20 people have been laid off at CBS News in Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles as part of wider cutbacks at parent company Paramount Global affecting 800 people.

The CBS News staffers made redundant reportedly include chief national affairs and justice correspondent Jeff Pegues and senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge.

Bustle Digital Group – 16 people

Adweek has reported that seven editorial staff at Bustle Digital Group title Fatherly have been laid off and that the site will “significantly decrease” its output.

Adweek also revealed that nine full-time employees across the Bustle, Romper and Elite Daily brands were let go in January but this had not previously been reported.

Wall Street Journal – Around 20 people

Sixteen reporters and one columnist were let go in a shake-up of the Wall Street Journal’s Washington DC coverage on 1 February, according to the Daily Beast. An unspecified number of editors are also thought to have been affected.

Editor-in-chief Emma Tucker told staff: “The new Washington bureau will focus on politics, policy, defense, law, intelligence and national security. Damian Paletta, our new Washington coverage chief, starts next week and will focus our efforts in these areas to deliver work that serves the readers and stands out from the competition.

“This means the Business team in Washington is closing as is the Washington-based U.S.-China team. Stories covered by these groups will be driven by various teams in the newsroom. We are also changing the editing structure in the bureau and are closing the D.C. News Desk; those editing functions will be handled elsewhere in the bureau or on the news desk in New York.”

Journalism job cuts in January 2024

The Messenger – About 300 people

Jimmy Finkelstein’s digital news start-up The Messenger abruptly closed on Wednesday 31 January, with many staff finding out from New York Times, Semafor and Axios reporting rather than management.

Editor Dan Wakeford reportedly told staff he was “not in the loop” on Slack minutes before the channel shut down.

The website was wiped less than four hours later. Staff have spoken out about being left with no severance and no health insurance.

Tech Crunch – About eight people

Tech Crunch reportedly laid off about eight people on Monday 29 January, with Adweek reporting it plans to “refocus its coverage around the investors, founders and startups of Silicon Valley”.

Tech Crunch is also winding down its paid subscription product, which first launched in 2019 and was rebranded to its current guise in 2021. It aimed to provide “advice and analysis to help startups” with interviews, newsletters, weekly coaching sessions, ad-free access to Tech Crunch, and more.

Altfi – Up to 15 people

London-based fintech news website Altfi announced on Friday 26 January it was closing down after ten years.

In a farewell note, the team told readers: “Whilst our purpose, journalism and brand following has never been in doubt, we have faced severe headwinds over the last 18 months.”

The Evening Standard reported that Altfi listed 15 members of staff on its website.

Forbes – Less than 3% of staff (which could be up to 15 people)

Forbes staff were told on Thursday 25 January – the same day as union members were on their first day of a three-day walkout over contract negotiations – that it planned to reduced staff by less than 3%.

Forbes has 500 employees worldwide, according to its website, meaning the layoffs could affect up to 15 people.

Forbes Media chief executive Mike Federle told staff: “Over the past few years, we’ve continued to find ways to diversify our business and revenue streams, and we’ve seen significant growth as a result.

“As we continue to position ourselves to fully align with our 2024 business strategy, we have had to reprioritize some resources so that our organization can meet those goals. These changes have resulted in the difficult decision to reduce staff in certain areas.”

Business Insider – 8% of staff (which could be up to 70 people)

Business Insider told staff on Thursday 25 January it planned to make 8% of staff worldwide redundant.

It came less than a year after the Axel Springer-owned title, which then had a headcount of 950 worldwide, laid off 10% of staff in the US.

Chief executive Barbara Peng told staff that while Business Insider “closed out last year [2023] with a plan in place, a clear target audience and a vision”, 2024 would be about “making it happen and focusing our company”.

“Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organisation.”

Time magazine – Around 30 people

Around 30 people were laid off from Time magazine on Tuesday 23 January, including about 13, or 15%, of its union-represented editorial employees, according to CNN.

The union reported that the layoffs included the majority of staff at the publisher’s news publication for children, Time for Kids.

Time chief executive Jessica Sibley told staff: “We have worked to manage expenses in other areas of our business aggressively to minimize the impact of this decision on our employees. All of these actions have moved us considerably closer to being a profitable company, an achievement we must reach to realize Time’s full potential.

“While this was not an easy decision to make, it is the necessary step we must take in order to drive our business forward and improve our financial position as an organization.”

Pink News – Nine staff at risk

LGBTQ+ publisher Pink News put nine roles at risk of redundancy in its editorial, brand and people teams. The roles at risk include news editor, entertainment editor, weekend editor, head of brand, and marketing manager.

The UK-based publisher blamed an “unpredictable financial year… which has necessitated strategic changes to our growth priorities”. The company is leaning into video, it said.

Los Angeles Times – 115 people

The Los Angeles Times announced it was laying off at least 115 people, or more than 20% of the newsroom, on Tuesday 23 January.

The title’s owner Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong said the cuts were necessary because it could “no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year without making progress toward building higher readership that would bring in advertising and subscriptions to sustain the organization”, the newspaper reported.

The Washington bureau, photography and sports departments and video unit were particularly hard-hit, it added.

Soon-Shiong has owned the Times for almost six years, after buying it from Tribune Publishing along with the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500m.

It came just six months after Los Angeles Times cut 74 roles in the newsroom, or about 13%.

Mediahuis Ireland – Around 50 people

Mediahuis Ireland is seeking voluntary redundancies with the aim of cutting costs by €4m annually. Compulsory redundancies could follow if there is not enough staff uptake.

The publisher of newspaper titles including the Irish Independent, Sunday World and Belfast Telegraph, as well as regionals such as The Kerryman and Wexford Times told staff on Tuesday 23 January it was seeking to reduce headcount by around 10%.

Around 549 people work for Mediahuis Ireland – 338 in journalism roles and 211 in areas like technology, HR and finance, according to the Irish Independent. Around 50 jobs are therefore expected to go, with 30 in editorial.

Chief executive Peter Vandermeersch told staff: “I am convinced that our strategy is the right one: to restructure our business to make this a leaner, more streamlined news organisation with the most efficient processes and systems possible, while continuing to produce the highest quality journalism and diversifying our revenues to build a sustainable future for our company.”

It comes less than a year after a previous round of voluntary redundancies. Its current headcount is already down by about 35% from when Mediahuis bought Irish news publisher Independent News and Media in 2019.

Sports Illustrated – Most, if not all, staff

Most, if not all, of Sports Illustrated’s staff were laid off after the publisher’s failure to pay a licensing fee saw the licence revoked.

The exact numbers of job losses are unclear but it was a heavy hit to the 70-year-old magazine. The Sports Illustrated Union said it had been told of plans to lay off “a significant number, possibly all”, of its members, who work in editorial, on Friday 19 January. According to NPR, the union represented 82 Sports Illustrated employees, or 80% of staff.

Sports Illustrated owner Authentic Brands Group said it had ended its licensing agreement with The Arena Group, with Front Office Sports reporting this was because Arena missed a $3.75m payment three weeks earlier.

Authentic Brands Group bought Sports Illustrated’s IP for $110m in 2019 and soon began licensing it to Arena in a ten-year deal.

Union members were reportedly given 90 days’ notice, during which time there is a chance the licensing deal is resolved, but non-union members were let go with immediate effect.

Update: Minute Media, which took over publishing Sports Illustrated in March, reportedly hired back more than 90% of editorial employees who worked for it under The Arena Group.

Design Week – Three people

Centaur Media closed Design Week on 19 January. Three editorial roles were lost as a result.

The 38-year-old online magazine told readers that Centaur was shifting strategy to its “core audience of marketers, and focuses on training, information, and intelligence”. It had closed in print in 2011.

Pitchfork – At least 12 people

Conde Nast folded the operation of music website Pitchfork into men’s title GQ, with chief content officer Anna Wintour saying: “This decision was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company.”

Pitchfork editor-in-chief Puja Patel left the company as a result on Tuesday 17 January, along with at least 11 other employees according to AP which reported that ten of those were journalists, leaving an editorial staff of eight.

Pitchfork, which launched in 1996, had been owned by Conde Nast since 2015.

Univision – Around 200 people

Televisa Univision cut around 200 jobs at Univision, a Hispanic network broadcaster in the US, on Wednesday 17 January.

The company said in a statement: “The evolution of the media landscape has required us to implement efficiencies and cost-cutting measures to meet existing demands and in turn, strengthen our business for the future. As a result, Televisa Univision has made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of positions in the US across various business units.”

Cuts affected on-air personalities in news and sport as well as roles in departments like production, sports, digital, and communications.

NBC News – 50 to 100 people

Around 50 to 100 people were laid off at NBC News on Thursday 11 January, with a 60-day notice period and severance packages.

NBC News and its news channel MSNBC made a similar round of redundancies a year ago in January 2023, with about 75 people affected.

The Messenger – Around 24 people

Digital news start-up The Messenger, which was launched by former owner of The Hill Jimmy Finkelstein in May last year, cut about two dozen jobs at the start of the year.

The New York Times said it was a cost-cutting measure as a result of dwindling cash reserves, blamed on a difficult advertising market.

Major journalism launches/new job roles in 2024

The Lever – Nine people – April

US reader-supported investigative news outlet The Lever has expanded with the addition of nine journalists.

It began life as a two-person newsletter in April 2020 and now has a team of 19.

Managing editor Joel Warner said: “We’re thrilled that our reader-supported news outlet continues to grow and to attract high-caliber journalism talent that is breaking open huge stories week after week.

“This is a difficult time for the media industry, but our subscribership and our commitment to accountability journalism are making this expansion possible.”

The new additions include a senior investigative reporter, senior enterprise reporter, three general reporters, a senior podcast producer, a contributing news designer, a social media and marketing producer, and an editorial fellow.

The Digital Frontier – 20 people – February

A new technology newsbrand, The Digital Frontier, is launching in London with a 20-strong team, of which nine are editorial roles producing a website, twice-weekly podcast and daily newsletter.

The post News media job cuts 2024 tracked: Dotdash Meredith lays off 53 people while AP plans buyouts appeared first on Press Gazette.

Press Gazette is honoured to announce the finalists for the British Journalism Awards 2024.

This year’s British Journalism Awards attracted 750 entries encompassing every major news organisation in the UK.

The finalists are announced today following a three-week process involving 80 independent judges and two days of jury-style meetings.

In order to make the shortlists work has to be revelatory, show journalistic skill and rigour and serve the public interest.

The winners will be announced on 12 December at a dinner in London hosted by Radio 2 presenter and journalist Jeremy Vine.

Details here about how to book tickets.

The shortlist for News Provider of the Year will be announced following a second round of judging. The winners of Journalist of the Year, the Marie Colvin Award and the Public Service prize will be announced on the night.

Chairman of judges and Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford said: “Without journalism, Boris Johnson would still be prime minister, wronged postmasters would not have a voice and victims of the infected blood scandal would not have a chance of compensation.

“The 2024 British Journalism Awards shortlists celebrate the stories which would not be told without journalists willing to shine a light on uncomfortable truths and publications brave enough to back them up.

“Congratulations to all our finalists and thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the British Journalism Awards.

“In a media world which is increasingly controlled by a few parasitic technology platforms it is more important than ever to celebrate the publishers willing to invest in and support quality journalism that makes a difference for the better in our world.”

British Journalism Awards 2024 shortlist in full:

Social Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Journalism

Natasha Cox, Ahmed El Shamy, Rosie Garthwaite — BBC Eye Investigations

• Perfume’s Dark Secret

Jessica Hill — Schools Week

• Missing from mainstream: Excluded children with nowhere to go
• ‘Out of sight, out of mind’: The rise of unregistered alternative provision
• Hospital schools: On the mental health crisis frontline

Sasha Baker, Valeria Rocca — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• The parents group at the centre of a rollback of trans rights
• ‘One day they may thank us for that “abuse”’: Inside the Bayswater Support Group

Rianna Croxford, Ruth Evans, Cate Brown, Ed McGown, Tom Stone, Ed Campbell, Karen Wightman — BBC Panorama

• The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool

Daniel Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Mariah Cooper, Reshma Rumsey — ITV News

• Nowhere to go: Britain’s homeless emergency

Louise Tickle — Tortoise Media

• Taking the stand: Grace’s story
• Taking the stand: Emma’s story

Abi Kay — Farmers Weekly

• Level the Field
• Is there a problem with young farmer culture?
• Editor’s view: Facing hard truths about young farmer culture

Joshua Nelken-Zitser, Ida Reihani, Kit Gillet — Business Insider

• Iran will pay for gender-transition surgery, but it comes at a cost — your dignity

Features Journalism

Sophie Elmhirst — 1843 magazine, The Economist and The Guardian

• The last stand of the call-centre worker
• Chortle chortle, scribble scribble: inside the Old Bailey with Britain’s last court reporters
• Last love: a romance in a care home

Jenny Kleeman — The Guardian

• America’s premier pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world: ‘There are going to be countries of old people starving to death’
• She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all
• ‘I know someone who played noughts and crosses on one’: meet the top surgeon who burned his initials on a patient’s liver

Sirin Kale — The Guardian

• ‘My child was drowning’: life and death on an English maternity ward
• The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror
• The Russell murders: is Michael Stone in prison for a brutal crime he didn’t commit?

Zoe Beaty — The Independent

• How Nigel Farage took over my hometown – and why Keir Starmer should be worried
• My battle to bring a predatory Met Police officer from the same unit as Wayne Couzens to justice
• ‘A court packed with those who know their way around already, and jails are too full to take them’

Inderdeep Bains — Daily Mail

• My doctors insist it’s time I died – but I will fight them: Extraordinary case of 19-year-old woman suffering from Charlie Gard condition battling medics’ attempts to ‘condemn her to death’
• Sudiksha: ‘Condemned to Die in Secret’ – The Shocking Story of the 19-year-old’s fight to live

David James Smith — The Independent

• How did so many miss the sinister warning signs about James Bulger’s killer for so long?
• Is Lucy Letby innocent? I’m a miscarriage of justice investigator – and here’s what I think…
• The wife of this Murdoch executive has been missing since the Sixties – will her body now be found?

Fiona Hamilton — The Times

• Nottingham attacks: ‘We have no faith in the police. We want justice’
• ‘A horrible way to die … and no doctors can help you’
• Realising Sarah Everard got into a sex offender’s car was horrific

Barbara McMahon — Daily Mail

• Ghislaine Maxwell ‘was tortured in prison – now she’s ready for a comeback’: Jeffrey Epstein’s socialite pimp runs half marathons at low-security Florida lock-up and is now ‘focused and motivated’ for her appeal next week, her brother reveals
• ‘I shook Epstein’s hand and asked him what my daughter would be doing’: Virginia Roberts’s father describes dropping her off at paedophile’s mansion, meeting ‘despicable’ Ghislaine… and blasts Prince Andrew for showing ‘no remorse’
• Black Widow who ‘relished killing and had no regard for human life, even for children’: Griselda Blanco shot a child in the head when she was 11 and rose to be Miami’s drug kingpin. As she’s immortalised on Netflix, her son recalls his ‘fearsome’ mother

Local Journalism

Abi Whistance, Joshi Herrmann, Kate Knowles, Mollie Simpson, Jothi Gupta — Mill Media

• Special investigation: The collapsing world of Liverpool’s charity kingpin
• Investigation: The spectacular rise and sudden fall of Gurpaal Judge
• Exclusive: How did a semi in Harpurhey sell for £1.8m?

Richard Newman, Jennifer O’Leary, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Thornton — BBC Spotlight

• Katie: Coerced and Killed

Sam McBride — Belfast Telegraph

• Lough Neagh has become a scene of Biblical disaster, and Stormont was central to its destruction
• Killing Edgar podcast

Chris Burn — The Yorkshire Post

• Building societies scandal: Yorkshire victims reveal shocking stories – and plead for action to be taken
• Philips Trust: FCA got ‘Ponzi scheme’ warning on firm at heart of £138m building society scandal – 18 months before collapse
• Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham Building Societies to pay tens of millions to Philips Trust victims

Jane Haynes — Birmingham Mail and Birmingham Mail/Post

• Teacher’s ‘life blown apart’ in onslaught of hate as false racism claim goes viral
• The truth exposed about ‘secretive’ council meeting on equal pay crisis in Birmingham
• ‘Like a prison’ – the tower block for homeless families that has 8pm curfew and no visitors allowed

Wendy Robertson — The Bridge

• The Bridge newsletter

Health & Life Sciences Journalism

Rebecca Thomas — The Independent

• Mental health patients ‘raped and sexually assaulted’ as NHS abuse scandal revealed
• Nicholas’s story: ‘I’ve been locked up for 10 years because I’m autistic. Is a chance at life too much to ask?’
• Revealed: NHS regulator’s ‘culture of fear’ that leaves rogue nurses free to abuse patients

Fin Johnston — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Science for sale: Philip Morris’s web of payments to fund tobacco research
• Inside the strategy doc Philip Morris never meant you to see
• Tobacco state: why Japan was the perfect testing ground for Philip Morris

Hannah Barnes — The New Statesman

• The trauma ward
• The Cass Review into children’s gender care should shame us all
• Hundreds of doctors are challenging the BMA’s stance on puberty blockers

Robbie Boyd, Eamonn Matthews, Steve Grandison, Ian Bendelow, Sophie Borland, Katie O’Toole, Islay Stacey, Ali Watt, Frances Peters — Quicksilver Media for Channel 4 Dispatches

• Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis

Ellie Pitt, Cree Haughton, Justina Simpson, Ellie Swinton, Patrick Russell, Liam Ayers — ITV News

• The Dark Side of Cosmetic Surgery

Martin Bagot — Daily Mirror

• Day in the life of a dentist – and why it’s nothing like you imagine as NHS nears collapse
• Britain’s dental health crisis exposed as hundreds of children in hospital with bad teeth
• Urgent warning amid fears cosmetic fillers could cause immune system problems

Hanna Geissler — Daily Express

• ‘I’m terminally ill – assisted dying must be legalised so my daughter won’t see me suffer’
• Assisted dying ‘allowed me to mostly forget’ fears, says Aussie man hit by brain tumour
• Dame Esther’s assisted dying petition delivered to Prime Minister’s doorstep

Crime & Legal Affairs Journalism

Sue Mitchell, Rob Lawrie, Joel Moors, Winifred Robinson, Dan Clarke, Philip Sellars, Tom Brignell, Mom Tudie — BBC

• To Catch a Scorpion
• How we found Europe’s most wanted migrant-smuggler
• Why the BBC could track down a people-smuggling kingpin before the police

Gabriel Pogrund, Katie Tarrant — The Sunday Times

• Millionaire’s ‘sex worker immigration scandal’
• Hamish Ogston: millionaire accused of exploiting women ‘set up charity to help win knighthood’
• Hamish Ogston: tycoon asked Met to arrest woman who accused him of sex trafficking

Mike Sullivan, Jerome Starkey, Mike Ridley — The Sun

• ‘Distraught’ Holly Willoughby under police guard after man is arrested over terrifying ‘kidnap plot’
• Police chief faces ‘Walter Mitty’ probe after being pictured wearing Falklands medal despite being 15 at time of war

Hannah Summers — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Family Court Files: mother ‘devastated’ after rapist father granted contact with child
• Family Court Files: Psychologist’s evidence used to ‘ramp up’ allegations of parental alienation
• Kristoffer White: TBIJ wins court battle to publish name of sex offender

Rianna Croxford, Ruth Evans — BBC Panorama and BBC News

• Abercrombie & Fitch ex-CEO accused of exploiting men for sex
• Lawsuit accuses Abercrombie & Fitch of funding sex-trafficking operation
• FBI investigate after ex-Abercrombie boss sex claims

Isobel Yeung, Alex Nott, Esme Ash, Nick Parnes, Alistair Jackson, Matt Bardo, Sarah Wilson — Channel 4 Dispatches

• Britain’s Unsolved Crimewave: Dispatches

Comment Journalism

Daniel Finkelstein — The Times

• Israelis and Palestinians must start to listen
• Wes Streeting’s lessons from Richard Nixon and China
• Here’s the Keir Starmer I’ve known for decades

Matthew Syed — The Sunday Times

• When I was at school a teacher could call me the P-word. We’ve come so far
• The storm is gathering, and Europe is still dithering on defending itself
• Locked in by language, we are freed by music, poetry, painting … and love

Will Hayward — WalesOnline/The Will Hayward Newsletter

• The most pointless job in Wales
• The worst political leader in the UK
• Bluster, fluster and ‘word salad’ nonsense: Vaughan Gething ducks and weaves like a boxer at the Welsh Covid Inquiry

Kitty Donaldson — i

• Part political update, part group therapy: inside Starmer’s Cabinet meeting
• Grenfell is a tragic reminder to the Tories that regulation is not a dirty word
• The winter fuel row is a painful wake up call for new Labour MPs

Frances Ryan — The Guardian

• A summer defined by men killing women and girls. This can’t go on
• Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?
• Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today

Duncan Robinson — The Economist

• Why the next Westminster scandal is already here
• The narcissism of minor differences, Labour Party edition
• British boomers are losing out for the first time

Specialist Journalism

Peter Blackburn — The Doctor (by the British Medical Association)

• Nowhere left to turn
• Fears for patient care due to shortages of chronic alcohol misuse treatment Pabrinex
• Not the only failing

Lucinda Rouse, Emily Burt, Ollie Peart, Louise Hill, David Robinson, Rebecca Cooney, Andy Ricketts, Nav Pal, Til Owen — Third Sector

• The End of Charity podcast

Lucie Heath — i

• Revealed: Water firms dumped sewage 5,500 times in a year ‘illegally’
• Revealed: The hidden sewage spills damaging our national parks and beauty spots
• Toxic water, debt and sewage dumping: How Britain’s rivers got so bad

Deborah Cohen, Margaret McCartney — BMJ/Pharmaceutical Journal

• Inclisiran: the ‘extremely unusual’ political influence behind the novel drug’s approval
• Galleri promises to detect multiple cancers—but new evidence casts doubt on this much hyped blood test
• Inclisiran: Government’s strategy to promote cholesterol lowering drug after Brexit was “spectacular failure,” says insider

Lee Mottershead — Racing Post

• Revealed: the racehorse owner fronting an illegal bookmaker with more than 1,000 customers
• ‘People don’t want to provide bank statements. We’ve got so many people betting with us’

Jessica Hill — Schools Week

• The rise of the parent activist
• AI’s allure is proving hard to resist for the UK’s learners
• ‘Out of sight, out of mind’: The rise of unregistered alternative provision

Emily Townsend — Health Service Journal

• Over 30 sepsis deaths linked to ‘systemic’ failings, investigation reveals
• Revealed: Doubling of average waits for critical stroke treatments
• Midwives call women in labour ‘Asian princesses’ amid ‘hostile’ environment fears

Roya Nikkhah — The Sunday Times

• Prince Harry at 40: ‘All he does is spend time looking back’
• The hospital heart-to-hearts that brought Kate and King even closer
• Prince William to build houses for homeless on his land in Cornwall

Foreign Affairs Journalism

Christina Lamb — The Sunday Times

• Gun in hand, the Israeli settler tells the Palestinian: I will kill you
• First Hamas fighters raped her. Then they shot her in the head
• ‘Who will protect us?’: Christina Lamb on the Yazidis’ dangerous journey home

Alex Crawford — Sky News

• Libya floods: Child’s voice heard under rubble as rescue teams search desperately in Derna for survivors
• Warning of Islamic State’s growing resurgence – as Sky News gets rare access to terrorists’ families
• Report from Lebanon

Kim Sengupta — The Independent

• Bombs, betrayal and burying loved ones: Plight of one Ukraine village illustrates toll of Russia’s invasion
• ‘I have buried more than 50 friends’: My life as a British soldier fighting on Ukraine’s bloody front line
• The families of hostages taken by Hamas are desperate – but can Israel get them back?

Vanessa Bowles, Jaber Badwan — Channel 4 Dispatches

• Kill Zone: Inside Gaza

Louise Callaghan — The Sunday Times

• The secret city of tunnels where hundreds live below Vegas glitz
• Claudia Sheinbaum: Meet the woman ready to be Mexico’s first presidenta
• Stand-off at Eagle Pass: welcome to the epicentre of the US border crisis

Secunder Kermani — Channel 4 News

• Palestinian detainees allege torture and sexual abuse by Israeli captors
• Myanmar military forces victims to fight in brutal civil war

Gesbeen Mohammad, Brad Manning, Nechirvan Mando, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, Esella Hawkey, Tom Giles, Hafez — ITV

• Inside Iran: The Fight for Freedom

Stuart Ramsay, Dominique van Heerden, Toby Nash — Sky News

• Haiti gang boss will take part in talks if invited – but warns foreign forces will be treated as ‘invaders’
• Aboard ‘The Beast’: What do migrants face travelling through Mexico on way to US?
• Shocking scenes in Gaza hospital as IDF moves into Khan Younis | Israel-Hamas war

Arkady Ostrovsky — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• Life and death in Putin’s gulag
• Death and destruction in a Russian city
• Life and fate (podcast)

Technology Journalism, sponsored by Amazon

Alexander Martin — The Record from Recorded Future News

• Ransomware attacks hit record level in UK, according to neglected official data
• UK government urged to get on ‘forward foot’ with ransomware instead of ‘absorbing the punches’
• Exclusive: UK to propose mandatory reporting for ransomware attacks and licensing regime for all payments

Marianna Spring — BBC News

• The real story of the news website accused of fuelling riots
• Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images
• X takes action on deepfake network smearing UK politicians after BBC investigation

Joe Tidy — BBC World Service

• ‘Pig butchering’ scammers target BBC reporter
• Sextortion warning: In six hours, my son was dead
• Stolen test data and NHS numbers published by hospital hackers

Amanda Chicago Lewis — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• Secrets of a ransomware negotiator

Cathy Newman, Job Rabkin, Emily Roe, Sophie Braybrook, Guy Basnett, Ed Howker — Channel 4 News

• Deepfake Porn

Helen Lewis — BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds

• Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat

Energy & Environment Journalism, sponsored by Renewable UK

Sam McBride — Belfast Telegraph

• Apocalypse Neagh: The source of 40% of NI’s water is ‘dying’
• Watch: Sam McBride’s in-depth look at Lough Neagh’s blue-green algae crisis

Josephine Moulds — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Backroom deals, mystery companies and a ‘killer lake’: inside DRC’s gas and oil auction
• HSBC helped oil and gas industry raise $47bn despite net-zero pledge
• Barclays’ billions of ‘sustainable’ finance for fossil fuel industry is greenwash, says investor

Esme Stallard, Becky Dale, Sophie Woodcock, Jonah Fisher, Libby Rogers — BBC News

• Water firms illegally spilled sewage on dry days – data suggests
• BBC uncovers 6,000 possible illegal sewage spills in one year

Rachel Salvidge, Leana Hosea — The Guardian/Watershed

• The Watershed Pollution Map
• Landfills across England could be leaking harmful toxic ooze, warn experts
• ‘It’s a poison and it’s killing us’: the hidden dangers of old UK landfills

Guy Grandjean, Patrick Fee, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Thornton — BBC Spotlight Northern Ireland

• Spotlight – The Lough Neagh Monster
• Hundreds of environmental breaches by Moy Park

Sofia Quaglia — The Guardian

• ‘If we can’t fish any more, we’re going to die’: the volunteer sea patrols protecting precious Philippine waters
• From sea to plate … to sea! Hong Kong puts oyster shells to new use
• ‘It smells so bad’: glut of wild salmon creates stink in Norway and Finland

Jess Staufenberg — SourceMaterial

• Trojan Horsepower – Formula 1 and the Saudi oil lobby
• F1 lobbies for Saudi against EU green rules

Arts & Entertainment Journalism

Mark Daly, Mona McAlinden, Shelley Jofre, Jax Sinclair, Karen Wightman, Hayley Hassall — BBC Panorama

• The Dark Side of Ballet Schools

Jonathan Dean — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Oasis reunion and Wembley gigs next year … is that definitely, maybe?
• Ridley Scott: I didn’t need historians to make my Napoleon epic
• Olly Alexander on Eurovision: ‘I was trying not to have a breakdown’

Rachael Healy — The Guardian and Observer

• ‘At the start you get molested and by 45 you’re too old to work’ – the secret misery of women working in TV
• Fresh crisis at ‘toxic’ Strictly as ex-staff claim they faced sexualised comments and cruelty
• ‘The outrageousness of what Louis CK did is totally lost’: the film about the backlash faced by his accusers

Tom Bryant — Daily Mirror

• BBC’s Huw Edwards scandal teen breaks silence in first interview – ‘I felt groomed’
• Huw Edwards scandal teen: Why I first tried to protect BBC star but now feel shame
• Paul O’Grady’s beloved dog nuzzled star’s shoulder as devoted husband battled to save him

Lucy Osborne, Stephanie Kirchgaessner — The Guardian and Observer

• ‘I honest to God believe I was drugged’: magician David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out
• The FBI investigated David Copperfield for two years. The claim that he was ‘exonerated’ was widely embraced. Was he?
• ‘Magic David called’: David Copperfield repeatedly contacted Jeffrey Epstein

Clemmie Moodie, Hannah Hope, Scarlet Howes — The Sun

• Strictly pro Giovanni Pernice probed over serious complaints by 3 ‘traumatised’ contestants as BBC ‘gathers evidence’
• Strictly Come Dancing bosses make huge changes to show after Giovanni Pernice quits
• Strictly bombshell as Amanda Abbington demands backstage footage of her and Giovanni as she is diagnosed with PTSD

Carolyn Atkinson, Olivia Skinner — BBC Radio 4 Front Row

• The British Museum’s missing gems
• Painting stolen in art heist more than 30 years ago returned to Glasgow museum

Rosamund Urwin, Charlotte Wace — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
• How The Times and The Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
• ‘I felt used and abused’ on Arthur: alleged Russell Brand victim speaks

New Journalist of the Year

Rafe Uddin — Financial Times

• Labour loses Muslim support over stance on Israel-Hamas ceasefire
• Reform UK’s unusual structure with Nigel Farage in the middle
• How Post Office lawyers pushed boundaries in UK sub-postmasters scandal

Sammy Gecsoyler — The Guardian

• ‘We’re going to see people dying on the streets’: homeless refugee crisis grips Liverpool
• ‘Rat bites and chronic asthma’: schools on frontline of UK housing crisis
• Met police agree six-figure payout to student hit by baton at protest

Kaf Okpattah — ITV News, ITV News London

• Whistleblower reveals corruption and collusion inside Wandsworth Prison
• The fraud scammers putting people out of pocket by cloning phone numbers

Simar Bajaj — The Guardian, New Scientist

• Everyone is on their phones. But is it really phone addiction we’re experiencing?
• The surprising mental health and brain benefits of weight-loss drugs
• He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore

Nimra Shahid — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Santander arranged billion-dollar oil bond after making green pledge
• Santander weakened fossil fuel policy after raising billions for gas projects

Venetia Menzies — The Sunday Times

• Anxiety drug pregabalin killed my son — and hundreds more are dying from it
• The company taking refugees out of Gaza — and ‘making millions’
• After the earthquake: how Morocco is rebuilding

Oliver Marsden — The Sunday Times/Al Jazeera

• Hero taxi driver who saved scores from Hamas faces hatred from both sides
• Dodging Israeli rockets with Ghana’s UN peacekeepers
• Israeli strikes on Lebanon: Attacks are causing wildfires across south

Yasmin Rufo — BBC News

• London mayor election: Bots, misleading URLs cause voter confusion
• Ulez expansion: Contested claims examined
• Ulez: More than 300 cameras damaged or stolen in four months

Sports Journalism

Jacob Whitehead — The Athletic

• Special report: Newcastle United sponsor Noon and shocking allegations of worker mistreatment
• Saudi Arabia investigates worker mistreatment allegations after The Athletic report on Newcastle sponsor Noon
• Special report: ‘Disturbing’ safety issues at Hillsborough 35 years after disaster

Oliver Brown — The Telegraph

• Angela Carini was sent unforgivably into harm’s way by gutless IOC cowards
• After my grandfather hugged Jesse Owens, the Nazis told him: ‘Never embrace a black man again’
• Michael Vaughan: If I had gone through this racism ordeal at 80, I would have wanted to be shot

Simon Lock, Rob Davies, Jacob Steinberg — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism / The Guardian

• Abramovich’s hidden football deals during Chelsea’s time at the top (TBIJ) and Chelsea FC face new questions over how Roman Abramovich funded success (Guardian)
• ‘I worked for Abramovich?’: footballers were owned by oligarch via offshore deals (TBIJ) and Revealed: Abramovich, the super-agent and the footballers owned as ‘commodities’ (Guardian)
• Leaked documents reveal Abramovich is still connected to Vitesse (TBIJ) and Abramovich loans fund owner of Dutch football club, leaked documents suggest (Guardian)

Jacob Judah — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• The strange case of the disappearing football team

Riath Al-Samarrai — Daily Mail

• Drifting through life without gold medals, tortured by his past, and now claims of bankruptcy… How did petulant Wiggins fall so spectacularly from his golden bike?
• Seb Coe explains why he’s HAPPY to break 128 years of Olympic tradition by handing out cash for gold… and reveals Roman Abramovich’s unlikely role in athletics
• The curious case of Jade Jones’ drugs test and why the Chinese might be quick to ask questions, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Ian Herbert — Daily Mail

• Looting and rioting, setting fire to police officers and hunting down English fans… fearful European clubs are turning a blind eye to shadowy leaders of their untouchable ultras
• Thirty-five years after horror of the Hillsborough tragedy, Mail Sport can reveal that incredibly the stadium is still not fit for purpose with poor stewarding, inadequate turnstiles and a problem tunnel
• Grubby, classless, the five-year legal battle over plane crash victim Emiliano Sala takes us into football’s sewers… where players are pawns and chronically inept clubs desperately try to save cash

Matt Lawton — The Times

• Man City launch unprecedented legal action against Premier League
• ‘The horror is everywhere’ – inside Lord Coe’s secret trip to Ukraine
• Russian athletes should be allowed at Olympics, says government

Um-E-Aymen Babar — Sky Sports

• How does endometriosis affect women in sport?
• USA cricket teen on tackling social media trolls, South Asian heritage and 2028 Olympic goals
• Um-E-Aymen Babar ok Tiktok

Campaign of the Year

Caroline Wheeler —The Sunday Times: Bloody Disgrace

• Thousands dead, 40 years of cover-up: time for justice for infected blood victims
• At last: promise of £10bn payout for infected blood victims
• Jeremy Hunt: I promised a dying friend I’d end infected blood scandal

Patrick Butler, Josh Halliday, John Domokos — The Guardian: Unpaid Carers

• Carers threatened with prosecution over minor breaches of UK benefit rules
• ‘Injustice’: 92-year-old with dementia told by DWP to repay £7k in disability allowance
• I’m under attack and fighting back: the scandal trapping carers

Computer Weekly editorial team — Computer Weekly: Post Office Scandal

• Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know
• Fujitsu staff instructed how to bid for government contracts during self-imposed ban
• Post Office Horizon replacement project labelled ‘unachievable’ as taxpayer bill reaches £1bn

David Cohen — Evening Standard: Show Respect

• Boys, porn and the alarming way they talk about girls – a special investigation
• School pupils tell how they are victims of sexual harassment every day
• Show some respect: Standard launches campaign with £500k to tackle sexist abuse in schools

Lucie Heath — i: Save Britain’s Rivers

• Save Britain’s Rivers: i challenges all parties to commit to election manifesto
• Revealed: The hidden sewage spills damaging our national parks and beauty spots
• National Trust signs up to i’s Save Britain’s Rivers manifesto

Hanna Geissler, Giles Sheldrick — Daily Express: Give Us Our Last Rights

• My assisted dying petition proves Brits are compassionate – now Rishi Sunak must act
• ‘I’m terminally ill – assisted dying must be legalised so my daughter won’t see me suffer’
• Assisted dying debate must move on to how law will change, MND campaigner says

Amy Clare Martin — The Independent: IPP Jail Sentences

• Revealed: 16 years in prison for stealing a bike and no hope of release – as 7 trapped in jail kill themselves
• ‘He looked like a starving dog on the floor’: Prisoner trapped on indefinite jail term driven to hunger strike
• Father imprisoned for 12 years for stealing mobile phone under ‘cruel’ indefinite jail term reunited with son

Martin Bagot, Jason Beattie — Daily Mirror: Save NHS Dentistry

• Dentists warn ‘rescue plan’ will fail to end crisis as 60,000 people sign our petition
• Day in the life of a dentist – and why it’s nothing like you imagine as NHS nears collapse
• Britain’s dental health crisis exposed as hundreds of children in hospital with bad teeth

Photojournalism

Thomas Dworzak — 1843 magazine, The Economist

André Luís Alves — 1843 magazine, The Economist

Giles Clarke — CNN Digital

Nichole Sobecki — 1843 magazine, The Economist

Dimitris Legakis — Athena Picture Agency

Stefan Rousseau — PA Media

Hannah McKay — Reuters

Interviewer of the Year

Alice Thomson — The Times

• Ed Davey: ‘Being a carer is harder than being a politician’
• Peter Kyle: It was 5am. A woman said, ‘Your partner is dead ’
• Emma Barnett: ‘The pain was so bad, I was losing the will to live’

Christina Lamb — The Sunday Times

• ICC prosecutor: UK didn’t blitz the IRA — Israel needs that restraint
• The president’s daughter (and Instagram star) wanted by Interpol
• David Cameron: ‘Why did I take the job? Rishi Sunak asked!’

Laura Kuenssberg — Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News

• Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal
• How Can We Protect Our Children Online?
• Inside No 11 with Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Charlotte Edwardes — The Guardian

• ‘You asked me questions I’ve never asked myself’: Keir Starmer’s most personal interview yet
• ‘Dismissing global warming? That was a joke’: Jeremy Clarkson on fury, farming and why he’s a changed man
• ‘The levels of attack are extraordinary’: Gary Lineker on punditry, podcasts – and why he won’t stop speaking his mind

Nick Ferrari — LBC

• Labour leader Keir Starmer joins Nick Ferrari to take your calls
• Champagne and caviar: Esther Rantzen reveals plans for final moments as she pushes for assisted dying law change
• Nigel Farage joins Nick Ferrari

Samantha Poling — BBC

• How I confronted Emma Caldwell’s killer
• Catching a Killer: The Murder of Emma Caldwell
• Who Killed Emma?

Piers Morgan — Piers Morgan Uncensored

• “Richard Gadd is PSYCHOTIC” Baby Reindeer’s ‘Real’ Martha Fiona Harvey
• Kevin Spacey Breaks Down As He Faces Debt Of MILLIONS
• Piers Morgan vs Rishi Sunak Round 2 | Prime Minister Discusses Israel-Hamas War, NHS, Rwanda & More

Paul Brand — ITV News

• Interview with Rishi Sunak
• Interview with Ed Davey
• Interview with Keir Starmer

(View all three interviews here)

Politics Journalism

Jim Pickard, Anna Gross — Financial Times

• Keir Starmer accepted £76,000 of freebies including tickets to over 20 football games
• Keir Starmer faces backlash over early failure to disclose £16,200 in donor-funded clothing
• Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves declared clothing donations as office support

Pippa Crerar — The Guardian

• Kemi Badenoch accused of ‘bullying and traumatising’ staff
• Rishi Sunak aide placed bet on election date days before announcement
• Tories putting party reputation before sexual assault claim, says alleged victim

Rowena Mason, Henry Dyer, Matthew Weaver — The Guardian

• Biggest Tory donor said looking at Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’
• ‘No room for the Indians?’: Tory donor Frank Hester suggested staff climb on train roof
• Revealed: Sunak flown to Leeds for private tour of Frank Hester’s office weeks after £5m donation

Job Rabkin, Darshna Soni, Ed Gove, Saif Aledros, Georgina Lee, Lee Sorrell — Channel 4 News

• Undercover Inside Reform’s Campaign

Beth Rigby — Sky News

• Election exit poll
• The Battle for Number 10: A Sky News Leaders’ Special
• How Reform fares on Thursday will also determine the Conservatives fate

Caroline Wheeler — The Sunday Times

• Commons worker arrested after allegedly spying for China
• My MP husband Andrew Bridgen was captured by antivax ‘cult’
• At last: promise of £10bn payout for infected blood victims

Jane Merrick — i

• Thousands of disabled people died after ‘Covid treatment withheld’, inquiry to probe
• ‘My daughter was allowed to die of Covid because she had Down’s syndrome’
• Labour manifesto missing pensioners’ winter fuel and bus pass pledges

Steven Swinford — The Times

• Britain and US launch airstrikes on Houthi targets
• Jeremy Hunt looks for £9bn to balance his budget
• Teachers and nurses should get above-inflation pay rise, ministers told

Business, Finance and Economics Journalism, sponsored by Starling Bank

Simon Murphy — Daily Mirror & Sunday Mirror

• Fujitsu boss lives on ‘blood money’ with £2m mansion as we suffer, says Post Office victim
• Provider boasting of ‘compassion’ threatens daughter with court action over £50k care bill for her 93-year-old amputee mother with dementia
• Mirror tracks down former Post Office IT chief that Horizon inquiry insisted couldn’t be found

Ed Conway — Sky News

• Surge in sale of UK-made cars to Russia’s neighbours shows how it’s beating sanctions
• British firms’ exports are almost certainly bolstering Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, Sky data analysis finds
• How British financial services aid sale of Russian gas on European market | Ukraine War

Tom Bergin — Reuters

• Online-gambling giants conquer U.S. with tactics deemed too tough for Britain

Gill Plimmer, Robert Smith — Financial Times

• Chinese state banks are lenders to Thames Water’s parent company
• Thames Water owners pile group with debt
• Thames Water shareholders backed away over regulator’s debt demands

Siddharth Philip, Benedikt Kammel, Anthony Palazzo, Katharine Gemmell, Sabah Meddings — Bloomberg News

• Bogus Supplier of Jet-Engine Parts May Have Faked Employees Too
• Ghost in the Machine: How Fake Parts Infiltrated Airline Fleets
• UK Fraud Cops Make Arrest in Fake Airplane Parts Scandal

Anna Isaac, Alex Lawson — The Guardian

• Sellafield apologises after guilty plea over string of cybersecurity failings
• Nuclear Narnia: why is Sellafield Europe’s most dangerous industrial site?
• Sellafield nuclear site hacked by groups linked to Russia and China

Danny Fortson — The Sunday Times

• Mike Lynch: Flown to the US in chains, now he is free … and talking
• Inside Mike Lynch’s last stand as $11bn fraud trial looms
• The app that promised an NHS ‘revolution’ then went down in flames

Online Video Journalism

Alex Rothwell, Alastair Good, Yasmin Butt, Pauline Den Hartog Jager, Jack Feeney, Federica De Caria, Kasia Sobocinska, Stephanie Bosset — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse | Investigation
• Undercover in a British prison: security flaws exposed | Times Investigation
• ‘Illegal’ conspiracy theory school exposed | Times Investigation

Andrew Harding — BBC News

• BBC tracks down smuggler behind Channel crossing which killed Sara, 7

Mohamed Ibrahim, Owen Pinnel, Mouna Ba, Wael El-Saadi, Feras Al Ajrami — BBC Eye Investigations

• Gaza 101: Emergency Rescue

Tom Pettifor, Matthew Young, Daniel Dove — Daily Mirror

• Has the man who killed Jill Dando finally been found?
• Jill Dando murder: Man wanted for questioning matches features of Serbian assassin
• Jill Dando murder: Key witness identifies Serbian assassin

Lucinda Herbert, Iain Lynn — National World Video

• Lured To Her Death: The Murder of Sasha Marsden

Reem Makhoul, Robert Leslie, Clancy Morgan, Amelia Kosciulek, Matilda Hay, Liz Kraker, Dorian Barranco, Barbara Corbellini Duarte, Erica Berenstein, Yasser Abu Wazna — Business Insider

• 4 Gazans show how war devastated their coastline

Piers Morgan — Piers Morgan Uncensored

• “Richard Gadd is PSYCHOTIC” Baby Reindeer’s ‘Real’ Martha Fiona Harvey

Ben Marino, Joe Sinclair, Veronica Kan-Dapaah, Petros Gioumpasis, Greg Bobillot — Financial Times

• Chinese brokers launder hundreds of millions for global crime groups | FT Film

Investigation of the Year

Scarlet Howes, Mike Hamilton, Alex West — The Sun

• Ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards charged with making 37 indecent images of children, ‘shared on WhatsApp’
• Huw Edwards used position of power to groom young people for 6 years even sending pictures from BBC desk to impress them
• We’re still suffering, say parents at centre of Huw Edwards scandal as they slam BBC for lack of answers after he quits

Rosamund Urwin, Charlotte Wace, Paul Morgan-Bentley, Esella Hawkey, Imogen Wynell Mayow, Alice McShane, Florence Kennard, Ian Bendelow, Victoria Noble, Alistair Jackson, Sarah Wilson, Geraldine McKelvie — The Sunday Times, The Times, Hardcash Productions, Channel Four Dispatches Investigations Unit

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
• How The Times and The Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
• Russell Brand: In Plain Sight

Alex Thomson, Nanette van der Laan — Channel 4 News

• Post Office Scandal

Paul Morgan-Bentley — The Times

• I worked undercover in one of UK’s most dangerous jails — without checks
• My son died in HMP Bedford. I never felt he was safe there
• Undercover in a British prison: security flaws exposed | Times Investigation

Ruth Evans, Oliver Newlan, Leo Telling, Sasha Hinde, Hayley Clarke, Karen Wightman — BBC Panorama

• Undercover School: Cruelty in the Classroom

Job Rabkin, Darshna Soni, Ed Gove, Saif Aledros, Georgina Lee, Lee Sorrell — Channel 4 News

• Undercover Inside Reform’s Campaign

Holly Bancroft, May Bulman, Monica C. Camacho, Fahim Abed — The Independent and Lighthouse Reports

• At last! Afghan special forces heroes set for sanctuary in UK after government U-turn
• MoD accused of burying admission that UK special forces had power over Afghan sanctuary claims
• Murdered, tortured or in hiding from the Taliban: The special forces abandoned by Britain

Daniel Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Isabel Alderson-Blench, John Ray — ITV News: The Post Office Tapes

• New secret tape reveals top Post Office lawyer was warned of ‘wrongful’ convictions decade ago
• Secret tape shows Paula Vennells was told about problems with Horizon and warned not to cover it up
• Paula Vennells’ ‘smoking gun’ email reveals Post Office ‘cover-up’

Rowena Mason, Henry Dyer, Matthew Weaver — The Guardian

• Biggest Tory donor said looking at Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’
• No yawning or fingerprints on doors: the strict rules at Tory donor’s firm
• Revealed: Sunak flown to Leeds for private tour of Frank Hester’s office weeks after £5m donation

Samantha Poling, Eamon T. O Connor, Anton Ferrie, Shelley Jofre — BBC Disclosure

• Catching a Killer: The Murder of Emma Caldwell

Scoop of the Year

Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse — The Sunday Times, The Times, Hardcash Productions and Channel 4 Dispatches

Huw Edwards Huw Edwards charged with making 37 indecent images of children, ‘shared on WhatsApp’ — The Sun

Naked photos sent in WhatsApp ‘phishing’ attacks on UK MPs and staff— Politico

No 10 pass for Labour donor who gave £500,000 — The Sunday Times

Labour will add 20% VAT to private school fees within first year of winning power — i

The Nottingham Attacks: A Search for Answers — BBC Panorama

Innovation

Harry Lewis-Irlam, Stephen Matthews, Darren Boyle, Rhodri Morgan — Mail Online: Deep Dive

• Anatomy of a loveless landslide: How Labour won on apathy and division
• Hour by hour, how D-Day unfolded…
• How China could seize Taiwan and spark WW3

Laura Dunn, Katie Lilley-Harris, Ellie Senior, Sherree Younger, Scott Nicholson, Jamie Mckerrow Maxwell — KL Magazine

• Rocky Bottoms
• Johnny Cave’s Asparagus
• Archangel Distilleries

Niels de Hoog, Antonio Voce, Elena Morresi, Manisha Ganguly, Ashley Kirk — The Guardian

• How war destroyed Gaza’s neighbourhoods – visual investigation

Alison Killing, Chris Miller, Peter Andringa, Chris Campbell, Sam Learner, Sam Joiner — Financial Times

• FT investigation finds Ukrainian children on Russian adoption sites

David Dubas-Fisher, Cullen Willis, Paul Gallagher, Richard Ault — Reach Data Unit

• DWP Cold Weather Payment postcode checker – map shows where households are due £25, £50 or £75 boost
• Enter postcodes in this map to see average house prices in your area
• Cheapest places in Greater Manchester to buy petrol as RAC issues fuel price warning

Gabriel Pogrund, Emanuele Midolo, Venetia Menzies, Darren Burchett, Narottam Medhora, Cecilia Tombesi — The Sunday Times

• The dead teenager, the lying suspect and the black box that proves it

The post British Journalism Awards 2024: Full list of this year’s finalists appeared first on Press Gazette.

Almost all the top 50 news sites in the US saw traffic fall in September, deepening a decline that began in August.

But for most publishers visits have nonetheless improved year-on-year, with three-fifths of the top 50 recording traffic increases of at least 10% compared with September 2023.

• Top 50 most popular news websites in the UK (monthly ranking)
• Top 50 most popular news websites in the world (monthly ranking)

All of the ten most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic drop compared to August. The contraction was sharpest at Yahoo Finance (down 11.3% month-on-month to 144.4 million visits) and third-placed Fox News (down 11.2% to 260.2 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).

Major news events in the US in September included Hurricane Helene hitting North Carolina, a second failed assassination attempt against Trump, and the first TV debate between him and Kamala Harris.

In September the shallowest traffic falls were recorded at The New York Times (down 1.9% to 355 million) and Forbes (down 2.1% to 113 million). Despite the drop September’s ranking reflects the first time Forbes has entered the US top ten after jumping three places to ninth. Google News (visits down 6.7% to 112.7 million), meanwhile, fell out of the top ten.

CNN, which was again the most visited site in the US, saw visits fall 4% to 424 million. The site has since rolled out its inaugural paywall, the effects from which will only become visible next month.

The Daily Mail (down 7.5% month-on-month to 113 million), which was the ninth most popular news site in the US in both July and August, dropped in September to tenth.

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.

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. Far-right website Gateway Pundit, which entered the chart at 48th last month, has in turn fallen out of the top 50.

Athlon Sports (up 218.4% year-on-year to 35 million) was the fastest riser in the ranks of the top 50, jumping eight places to 33rd on the back of 18% month-on-month traffic growth, the second most growth of any publisher in the top 50.

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.

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 UK's The Independent, which has been on a US expansion campaign, saw some fruits from that bid in September: it was one of the four sites to see month-on-month traffic growth (rising 5.7% to 39.7 million) and notched year-on-year growth of 88.3%, the fourth highest overall.

Going the opposite direction, however, was the US outpost of fellow British publisher The Sun (22.2 million visits), which dropped 15 places to 50th on the back of 34.9% month-on-month and 65.1% year-on-year traffic declines. The Sun recently made steep cuts at its US operation.

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. They were followed by Newsweek, where visits rose 115.1% year-on-year to 92.6 million. Newsweek's rapid rise up the charts has stalled in recent months: having been in the top ten in July it fell out last month and in September placed 14th.

All but two of the ten most-visited sites in the US in September saw year-on-year traffic growth. New top ten entrant Forbes was also the fastest-growing site in the group, seeing visits rise 48% compared with September 2023. It was followed by People magazine (up 37.8%), USA Today (up 29.6% to 166 million) and The New York Times.

The two top ten sites to see year-on-year traffic declines were Fox News (down 0.7%) and Mail Online, where visits dropped 7.2%.

Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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.

Continue reading for previous months' coverage of the top 50 websites for news in the US:

August 2024

Two-thirds of the top news sites in the US saw traffic shrink month-on-month in August following a bumper July.

But the picture is rosier over a longer timespan, with three-quarters of the top 50 publishers seeing year-on-year growth in visits in August.

The contraction is particularly pronounced among the top ten US news sites by traffic, where eight publishers saw visits drop compared to July.

In July every site in the top ten saw month-on-month traffic growth, likely driven by blockbuster news events including the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump and Joe Biden's departure from the presidential race.

But in August People.com (162.6 million visits) and Yahoo Finance (162.8 million) were the only top ten sites to continue growing their traffic, by 3% and 2% respectively.

The biggest drop came at CNN, which saw visits fall 16% to 441.4 million. It nonetheless remained the most-visited news site in the US, a position it has held since Similarweb updated its data model in June and pushed the site ahead of The New York Times.

The New York Times maintained its position in second place, with 361.8 million visits, and Fox News was third on 293 million.

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.

Mail Online remained steady at ninth place with 122.2 million visits while Google News (120.8 million) jumped three places to tenth despite losing 4% of traffic month-on-month, displacing Newsweek (115.7 million) from the top ten.

Further down the rankings The Daily Beast was the highest debuting publication, entering the top 50 at 39th place after seeing traffic rise 22% month-on-month to 30 million. The other new entrants in August were Dailydot.com (29.8 million, 40th place), NJ.com (26.6 million, 47th) and Newsbreak.com (25.7 million, 50th).

The four sites that dropped off the top 50 to make room for them were climate site The Cooldown, which had been enjoying a rapid traffic rise in recent months, local publishers Patch.com and KSL.com, and current affairs magazine The Atlantic.

The biggest riser already on the charts was progressive news site Raw Story, which climbed eight spots to 37th place on the back of a 24% month-on-month traffic increase to 33.2 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).

Among all top 50 sites The Daily Dot grew fastest month-on-month, seeing traffic rise 25%.

Year-on-year, however, the fastest growth was at sports publisher Athlon Sports, which has been the case among the US top 50 every month since May. The site received 374% more visits in August 2024 than in August 2023, reaching 29.6 million. The next fastest growth was at Newsweek, where traffic rose 158%, and the Daily Dot (88%).

Among the top ten news sites by US traffic People magazine again saw the most year-on-year growth in August, having also been the fastest annual growers in April, May and June. July's fastest year-on-year riser, USA Today, followed in second place in August.

July 2024

All but two of the top 50 news websites in the US saw visits grow month-on-month amid an eventful July for political news.

All of the top-ten most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic growth when compared with June, according to figures from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. The biggest increases in traffic were at USA Today (34%), CNN (33%), Newsweek (21%), Fox News (20%) and The New York Times (15%).

These figures contrast against June, when none of the top ten saw month-on-month growth.

The figures for July are the first Press Gazette has published since Similarweb updated its data model. The company says the update has improved the accuracy of the data, particularly with regard to smaller websites.

The most notable result of the change appears to be that it has bounced CNN (525 million visits) ahead of The New York Times (385.7 million) to retake the top spot on the traffic ranking.

Fox News (336.7 million) retained its position in third place, ahead of MSN (263 million) which it overtook in May.

Under the new model People.com (158.3 million) drops from fifth place, which it occupied in May, to eighth, behind USA Today (188.1 million) in fifth, the New York Post in sixth (160.5 million) and Yahoo Finance in seventh (159.5 million). Mail Online (136.1 million) gains a place, rising to ninth, and Newsweek (133.3 million) leaps from 16th to tenth place.

The only sites to see visits decline month-on-month were the US website of the UK's The Sun newspaper (37.1 million) and Athlon Sports (27.5 million), which both dropped 3%.

Year-on-year, however, Athlon (athlonsports.com) saw the greatest growth in the top 50, drawing in 697% more visits in July 2024 than in July 2023.

The second-fastest annual growth was at climate site The Cooldown (25.5 million, up 562%) and the third-fastest was at Newsweek (172%), which was also the fastest-growing site among the top ten domains.

All the top-ten sites by total visits grew year-on-year in July, seven of them by double-digit percentages.

Six of the top 50 saw year-on-year visit declines in July. The Sun was again the biggest faller, dropping 46% of its traffic. It was followed by Yahoo News (down 22%), Buzzfeed (down 17%), the Los Angeles Times (down 12%), and CNBC and SFGate, each of which declined 2%.

The largest gains month-on month were at political and hard news sites, again reflecting a historic July for news. ABC News (83.5 million visits) saw the most growth between June and July, increasing traffic 81%. 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%.

June 2024

Newsweek was once again the fastest-growing news website in the US in June 2023, notching 15% month-on-month growth to 110.2 million visits.

In addition Newsweek saw visits rise 144% compared to June the prior year, but it did not see the most year-on-year growth among the top 50. The fastest year-on-year growth came at Athlon Sports, which attracted 28.5 million visits in June, up 484% from the prior year.

Climate news site The Cooldown saw the second most year-on-year growth, with visits rising 152% to 21.9 million.

Among the top ten sites by traffic no publisher saw month-on-month growth in June. The New York Post saw the biggest decline - dropping 11% of traffic month-on-month - followed by The New York Times, which dropped 10% to 336 million visits.

Celebrity-focused People.com saw the most year-on-year growth in the top ten, growing visits 37% to 142.1 million. It was followed by USA Today, which saw traffic rise 11% to 140.3 million.

May 2024

Note: Figures from May 2024 and earlier were calculated using an old Similarweb data model that has since been updated.

Celebrity-focused newsbrand People.com was the fastest-growing news website in the US in May, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking.

Visits to the popular magazine’s website were up 18% month-on-month to 165.3 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

It was followed by two News Corp titles, foxnews.com (269.1 million visits) and nypost.com (160.8 million), which were both up 8% month-on-month.

CNN (419.2 million visits, up 3%) and the New York Times (503.4 million, up 3%) also saw growth, albeit more modest, compared to April.

While the New York Times remained the biggest newsbrand in the US by number of visits followed by CNN, a strong monthly performance from Fox News led it to overtake MSN (261.3 million visits) into third place, pushing MSN into fourth.

People meanwhile retook fifth place following its strong growth, with Yahoo Finance (154.4 million) falling into seventh.

Year-on-year, People was again fastest-growing with visits up 42%, while The New York Times (up 17%) and USA Today (125.7 million, up 16%) also saw strong growth - contrasting with USA Today’s sharp monthly slump (its visits were down 15% making it the biggest-falling site among the top ten compared to April).

Among the top 50, Newsweek, which has topped the list for growth in several of the past months, was only the third fastest growing site year-on-year despite another strong month.

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.

Fastest-growing was long-standing sports publisher Athlon Sports, which entered our top 50 for the first time in 33rd place (35.9 million visits, up 962% year-on-year). Athlon is best known for publishing pre-season single-title sports annuals on professional and college sports, and was temporarily merged with Sports Illustrated in 2022. It was followed by financial news and advice site Moneywise (27.6 million visits, up 334% year-on-year).

The same two sites topped the table for monthly growth with visits to Athlon Sports up 126% and visits to Moneywise up 70% compared to April.

AP News (98.8 million, up 21%) and Variety (43.8 million, up 19%) also saw growth of over or close to a fifth.

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).

Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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.

April 2024

Newsweek continued a strong run of growth to retake its spot as the fastest-growing news website in the US in April, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking.

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.

Newsweek was followed by Virginia-based national newsbrand Axios which like Newsweek more than doubled its traffic (31.9 million visits, up 107% year-on-year), new climate and sustainability news site The Cool Down (27.8 million visits, up 71% year-on-year) and Advance Local Michigan news site M Live (22.7 million, up 66%).

Month-on-month Newsweek did less well, seeing no change in audience compared to March. Instead fastest-growing was M Live (up 27% month-on-month), followed by CBS News (84 million, up 26%), Axios (up 21%), and technology specialist The Verge (up 17%).

The US Sun was also among the fastest-growing sites month-on-month, up 16% to 46.3 million, sharing joint fifth place with Forbes (108.3 million, also up 16% month-on-month).

Among the ten biggest sites by number of visits, celebrity newsbrand People was the fastest growing year-on-year for a second month (140.2 million visits, up 31%). It was followed by Gannett’s flagship newsbrand USA Today (148.1 million, up 25% compared to April 2023),

The remainder of the top ten either declined year-on-year or in the case of the New York Times (up 1%) and the New York Post (down 1%) registered virtually no change in traffic. Fox News saw the biggest slump at 14% with visits down to 249.9 million despite a busy news cycle in the US with national elections later this year.

Month-on-month New York Post (149.4 million, up 7%), USA Today (up 3%) and MSN (263.2 million, up 2%) were fastest-growing. Those that declined only saw small traffic drops with People (down 4% compared to March) and Washington Post (117 million, also down 4%) seeing the largest drops.

The New York Times remained the biggest newsbrand in the US by number of visits (487.6 million), followed by CNN (405.7 million), MSN, Fox News and Yahoo Finance (151 million) which retained its fifth position after knocking People off fifth spot last month.

The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking (rank 11, 115.4 million visits), pulling further ahead of the BBC (rank 13, 106.1 million), which fell one place from twelfth in March.

Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

March 2024

Celebrity newsbrand People was the fastest-growing news website in the US in March according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking.

Visits to People.com were up 27% year-on-year to reach 145.7 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Along with USA Today (143.4 million visits, up 13% year-on-year) and New York Times (498.6 million, up 10%), it was one of three of the top ten websites by number of visits in March to see double-digit growth.

In contrast, top ten sites Fox News (248.5 million, down 19%), the New York Post (139.3 million, down 16%), MSN (258.5 million visits, down 13%), Google News (131.8 million, down 10%) and CNN (402.2 million, down 10%) saw double-digit slumps in visits compared to March 2023.

Month-on-month the picture was more positive for the ten biggest sites, with all but People (down 8%) seeing more visits in March than February. 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.

Among the wider top 50, The Cool Down, which entered our ranking last month for the first time in 42nd position, saw strong growth for another month, moving up from 42nd to 35th in the table. Visits to the climate-specialised newsbrand were up 25% month-on-month and 421% year-on-year (30.4 million visits).

The Cool Down was the fastest-growing site year-on-year among the whole top 50. It was followed by Newsweek (90.5 million visits, up 144% year-on-year).

A Newsweek spokesperson told Press Gazette last month that “the share of readers visiting us via our front door is setting records” and is its “best source of stable, growing audience independent of third-party algorithm changes” as many publishers experience Google and Facebook referral declines.

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). It was followed by independently run consumer-focused science news site sciencealert.com (24.4 million visits, up 66% month-on-month).

Long-running magazine The Atlantic also saw a strong March with 30 million visits, an increase of 26% month-on-month.

The New York Times remained the biggest newsbrand in the US by number of visits, followed by CNN, MSN, Fox News and Yahoo Finance (150.1 million visits) which knocked People out of fifth position.

The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking (rank 11, 113 million visits), just ahead of the BBC (rank 12, 106.9 million).

Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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.

February 2024

Newsweek was the fastest-growing news site in the US in February while climate news startup The Cooldown entered the list in 42nd position, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking.

Visits to the site of news magazine Newsweek, which has expanded its rankings content and consumer guides in the past year, were up 130% year-on-year to 69.1 million, making it the fastest growing news site in the top 50, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb. (We excluded The Cool Down from the year-on-year analysis because the site only recently launched towards the end of 2022).

Newsweek was followed by Axios (25 million visits, up 88% year-on-year) and Politico (50.7 million, up 51%). UK newsbrand The Independent (25.7 million, up 44%) also made the top ten for growth, ranking 39th in the top 50. Last month The Independent also featured among the ten fastest-growing sites in the top 50, as it seeks to grow its US foothold.

Month-on-month the fastest-growing newsbrand was The Cool Down (24.3 million visits, up 52% compared to January). Ranked 42nd in this month’s top 50, the site was launched by founder and CEO of the sports media outlet Bleacher Report Dave Finocchio and Anna Robertson, an ABC and Yahoo News executive, and purports to be the "first mainstream climate brand" in the US.

It was followed for month-on-month growth in visits by progressive news website Rawstory (20.4 million, up 24%) and Newsweek (up 10% month-on-month).

None of the ten biggest news websites by number of visits grew month-on-month in February. People (158.7 million visits, down 2% month-on-month) and Yahoo Finance (147.2 million, down 3%) saw the smallest falls, while Fox News (242.5 million, down 10%) and Gannett’s flagship title USA Today (131.3 million, down 13%) saw the only double-digit declines.

Annually, the picture was more mixed for the ten biggest sites. People (up 30% year-on-year), USA Today (up 20%) and Yahoo Finance (up 14%) saw the biggest increases in visits compared to February 2023.

At the other end of the list however, Microsoft news aggregator MSN (247.4 million visits) and News Corp’s New York Post (124.9 million) saw the biggest year-on-year slumps at 17% each.

The New York Times (456.7 million visits) remained the biggest newsbrand in the US by number of visits, followed by CNN (372.8 million), MSN, Fox News and People.

The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking (107.7 million visits) in tenth, one place ahead of the BBC (101 million).

Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

January 2024

The Independent was one of the fastest-growing news sites in the US in January, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking.

Visits to the UK publisher’s site were up 29% month-on-month to 24.3 million, making it the second-fastest growing news site in the US, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.

The Independent is one of several UK newsbrands along with The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Express and the BBC that have recently put focus on expansion in the US.

The Independent’s chief executive Christian Broughton told Press Gazette last year that US expansion, along with e-commerce, Independent TV, reader revenues and AI, are the main drivers of growth for the publisher.

The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking (119.8 million visits) although it dropped one place to eleventh from tenth in the past month.

Fastest-growing month-on-month in the top 50 was Advance Local-owned New Jersey news site nj.com (23.5 million visits, up 33% month-on-month) while third fastest-growing was Business Insider (74.4 million, up 21%).

Year-on-year, compared to January 2023, the fastest-growing site was Newsweek (62.7 million visits, up 94%), followed by Axios (28.8 million visits, up 60%) which in recent years has expanded into local news and its professional subscription service, Axios Pro.

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.

Among the ten biggest news websites by volume of visits, USA Today was the fastest-growing for a third month in a row.

Visits to the Gannett-owned site were up by 32% year-on-year to 151.4 million – echoing its year-on-year growth rate last month.

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.

People and USA Today also saw the biggest growth month-on-month among the top ten sites. Visits to People were up 11% compared to December while they were up 8% to USA Today.

In contrast to the annual figures, however, all of the ten biggest sites saw month-on-month growth of at least 3% in January.

The largest site in the US remained The New York Times (482.7 million visits), followed by CNN (398.8 million) and Fox News (270.2 million).

Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

December 2023

USA Today was the fastest-growing of the ten biggest news websites in the US in December for a second month in a row, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

Visits to the Gannett-owned site were up by a third (32%) year-on-year to 140.8 million - dwarfing its own year-on-year growth rate of 11% last month, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.

People (145.9 million visits, up 20% year-on-year) was the only other top ten site by number of visits to see an increase in traffic in December.

The remainder of the large US news sites saw falls in traffic, echoing our global ranking where none of the top ten sites grew year-on-year, possibly due to changes in Google’s search algorithm in the last four months of 2023.

MSN (259.2 million visits, down 33% year-on-year), Google News (134.1 million, down 20%) and CNN (374.7 million, down 17%) saw the biggest drops.

Since November, Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.

Two sites focused on news from Israel featured among the fastest-growing in the overall top 50, due to audience interest in the conflict in Gaza. Fastest-growing was Jerusalem-based Times of Israel (21.5 million visits, up 329%), while Yeshiva World (20.3 million, up 37%) also made the list of biggest-growing sites.

Aggregator Newsbreak (22.5 million, up 69%) and Axios (24.8 million, up 46%) also appeared among the fastest-growing sites in the top 50.

The New York Times saw visits grow 6% month-on-month compared to November and was again the biggest site in the US (464.4 million visits). CNN again came in second after leading the table for several months beforehand (373.7 million).

Fox News (262.1 million) and MSN again took third and fourth place, but People leapfrogged Yahoo Finance into fifth.

The Daily Mail jumped another place in December to rank tenth (116.3 million visits, down 12% year-on-year but up by the same month-on-month) ahead of fellow British news provider the BBC (104.6 million, rank 12).

The Sun performed markedly better compared to November, ranking ten places higher in 24th with 48.3 million visits, an increase of 70% month-on-month. However it was down by a third (32%) compared to December 2022.

November 2023

USA Today was the fastest-growing top ten news website in the US in November, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

Visits to the Gannett-owned site were up 11% year-on-year to 121.8 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb. It was one of just two top ten news sites by number of monthly visits along with People (127.3 million visits, up 9% year-on-year) to see an increase in traffic in November.

The remaining top ten newsbrands saw a slump in traffic with Microsoft-owned msn.com (243.3 million visits, down 37% year-on-year), CNN (372.4 million, down 27%) and Fox News (252.2 million, down 26%) recording the largest falls at more than a quarter each. This month the figures for edition.cnn.com have been excluded from Similarweb’s report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however last month made up just 1.5% of all visits to the CNN domain in the US and the change will therefore be slight.

The biggest site by number of visits was The New York Times (436.8 million visits) which has in recent months been jostling for top spot with CNN. The US cable broadcaster fell to second in November (372.4 million). Third was Fox News (252.2 million), while MSN was fourth and Yahoo Finance was fifth (138.6 million).

The best-ranked UK newsbrand in the US top 50 was Mail Online, which jumped one place to rank 11 despite a month-on-month fall in visits. It was followed by the BBC (rank 12, 99.9 million visits). The BBC’s visit total is slightly lower this month due to the exclusion going forward of visits to bbc.co.uk in the US since this traffic is redirected. The Sun meanwhile came in 34th position as it continues to lose traffic in the US (28.2 million visits, down 60% year-on-year and 44% compared to October).

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was Times of Israel (27.3 million visits, up 468% compared to November 2022). It was followed by Newsweek (57.5 million, up 87%), aggregator Newsbreak (20.6 million, up 61%) and UK news site The Independent (20.4 million visits, up 28%). Jewish news site Yeshiva World (19.2 million, up 28% year-on-year) came in fifth. Like Times of Israel its growth is linked to increased interest in news about Israel and the Middle East region following the outbreak of war with Gaza on 7 October.

October 2023

Thirty of the 50 biggest news websites in the US (60%) grew traffic year-on-year in October, with The Times of Israel seeing the biggest growth.

The Jerusalem-based online newspaper saw visits up 708% year-on-year to 29.6 million, followed in second place by Al Jazeera (27.8 million visits, up 132%), according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Neither site has previously appeared in our top 50 ranking, suggesting the boost in visits is linked to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas which began on 7 October. The Times of Israel entered the ranking in 35th position, with Al Jazeera just behind in 36th.

AP (99.2 million visits, up 62%), ABC News (52 million visits, up 62% also) and The Independent (22.5 million, up 57%) also saw significant year-on-year growth in visits, suggesting a similar boost linked to increased reader interest in events in Gaza and Israel.

Among October’s top ten sites by number of visits, more than half saw year-on-year growth, reversing last month’s trend when all but two top of the ten sites saw a slump in visits.

People saw the biggest audience surge in October (137 million visits, up 31% year-on-year). It was followed by CNN (516.9 million, up 23%), Fox News (306.8 million, up 16%) and New York Post (137.3 million, up 15%). The New York Times (485.1 million, up 3%) and the BBC (150.7 million, up 1%) saw smaller growth in the single figures.

Despite smaller year-on-year growth, the BBC’s strong month-on-month growth of 25% meant it jumped five places in the ranking to fifth place. However it should be noted that Similarweb’s data captures visits to the whole BBC.com domain, which includes more than just news.

Washington Post (129.9 million, down 17%) and news aggregator MSN (259.8 million, down 19% saw the biggest falls among the top ten.

The biggest site by number of visits was CNN, which overtook the New York Times to resume its place as the top US news website. The New York Times has been the country’s biggest news website for the past three months and for much of the last two years, however that position had traditionally been held by CNN.

The best-ranked UK newsbrand in the US top 50 after the BBC was Mail Online (127 million visits, rank 12), followed by The Guardian (79.5 million, rank 18).

The Sun, which has generally seen consistently strong growth over the past two years in this ranking, fell seven places to rank 30 (45.6 million visits, down 24% year-on-year).

The Mirror (rank 48, 10.1 million visits), The Express (rank 50, 8.6 million) and Cosmopolitan (rank 42, 17.6 million) were among 11 sites that entered the top 50 for the first time in October.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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.

September 2023

AP News and Axios were among the top three fastest-growing news sites in the US in September, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly top 50 ranking.

Visits to the website of the UK public broadcaster were up 9% year-on-year to 133.9 million according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Visits to second-fastest growing AP were up 49% year-on-year to 79.6 million, while third-biggest growing Axios saw visits up 37% to 22.8 million.

US aggregator Newsbreak was however top of the table for growth with visits up 53% to 19.7 million.

The Independent also featured among the fastest-growing sites, coming in tenth place for growth with visits up 17% to 23.1 million. This however was markedly less than August when the British newsbrand’s year-on-year growth was 53%.

Among the ten biggest sites by number of visits in September, USA Today was fastest-growing for the second month in a row and climbed three places compared to August to seventh. Visits to the Gannett-owned newsbrand were up 20% to 126.8 million.

Celebrity newsbrand People (122.9 million visits, up 7%) was the only other top ten site to see increased visits in September, and also climbed three places in the ranking (into ninth position).

The New York Times retained its position as the biggest news website in the US for the third month in a row (425 million visits), once again opening up a gap with second-placed CNN (401.2 million visits). CNN saw a bigger month-on-month traffic slump (down 13%) than the New York Times (down 8%).

CNN was historically top until February 2022, when the New York Times saw a jump in visits following its purchase of Wordle, and the broadcaster was briefly top again in June.

Completing the top five, which was unchanged from August, was Microsoft news aggregator MSN (246 million visits), Fox News (241.8 million) and Yahoo Finance (135.8 million). The BBC (120.6 million visits) fell one place to tenth compared to August but maintained a spot among the ten biggest newsbrands in the US.

Other British newbrands in the top 50 included The Guardian (68.7 million visits, rank 18), which saw visits fall 10% year-on-year, and The Sun’s US edition (50.2 million, rank 23), where traffic was up 13%.

Despite growing year-on-year, a sharp month-on-month fall in the number of visits at The Independent meant that along with technology site The Verge, the British newsbrand saw the biggest drop in places in September compared to August (both down seven spots).

August 2023

The BBC was one of the fastest-growing top ten websites in the US in August, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly top 50 ranking.

The BBC was outdone, however, by USA Today which saw visits up 23% to 129.4 million. The Gannett-owned newsbrand has seen regular growth in recent months, and this month climbed the ranking into tenth place compared to twelfth place in July.

Similarweb’s data captures visits to BBC.com and bbc.co.uk meaning that visits for the BBC’s entertainment content will also be included.

USA Today and the BBC were followed by CNN, the only other site in the top ten by number of visits to grow year-on year (461 million visits, up 5%).

Washington Post (139.8 million, down 11%) and Google News (147.9 million, down 17%) were in contrast the biggest fallers among the top ten sites.

The New York Times maintained its title as the biggest news website in the US for the second month in a row, although its lead over CNN fell to just 800,000 as CNN saw a bigger month-on-month traffic boost (11% versus 5%). CNN was historically top until February 2022, as the New York Times saw a jump in visits following its purchase of Wordle, and the broadcaster was briefly top again in June.

Microsoft news aggregator Msn.com (270.6 million visits), foxnews.com (268.8 million) and Yahoo Finance (155.9 million) make up the remainder of the top five.

Among the top 50 as a whole, AP saw the highest year-on-year growth with visits up 85% to 55.6 million, echoing its leading position for growth in our global ranking.

It was followed by cbsnews.com (67.8 million, up 54%) and independent.co.uk (30.6 million, up 53%).

The Sun’s US edition, which has regularly featured among the fastest-growing sites in the US top 50 in the past year, this month recorded a drop as visits to the-sun.com were down 9% year-on-year to 49.5 million.

AP saw the biggest jump in rank, climbing four positions to 16 in contrast to last month when it was the biggest faller (dropping four places to 20) while entertainment title Variety (24.4 million, rank 43, down five places) saw the biggest fall in position.

July 2023

The Independent was the joint fastest-growing news website in the US in July, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly top 50 ranking.

Visits to the website of the UK newsbrand were up 69% year-on-year to 31.5 million according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. The Independent, along with the BBC and The Sun, has recently increased its investment in the US in a bid to tap into the country’s large news market.

It was tied for growth with US broadcasting giant CBS News, which also saw visits up 69% year-on-year to 71.5 million.

Third fastest-growing was celebrity news-focused People.com (131.9 million visits, up 55% year-on-year) which jumped three places compared to June’s ranking to enter the list of the top ten biggest sites in the US in July.

The Sun’s US edition, which has regularly featured among the fastest-growing sites in the US top 50 in the past year, was the seventh fastest-growing in July as visits to the-sun.com were up 33% year-on-year to 54.7 million.

Sfgate.com, the website of Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle, saw the biggest jump in rank, climbing eight positions to 33 (33.7 million visits), while AP (67.3 million visits, rank 20, down four places) and ABC News (39.5 million, rank 31, down five places) saw the biggest falls in position.

The New York Times overtook CNN to resume its title as the biggest news website in the US by number of visits. CNN was historically top until February 2022, as the New York Times saw a jump in visits following its purchase of Wordle. But CNN was briefly top again in June.

In July there were 441.6 million visits to the New York Times website, compared to 415.2 for CNN.com, but both did see a fall in traffic by 4% and 9% respectively year-on-year.

The remaining top five sites - msn.com (269.6 million visits), foxnews.com (262.1 million) and nypost.com (153.5 million) - saw their positions in the ranking unchanged from June.

The BBC, which climbed one place in June to sixth position, fell two places to eighth with 134.6 million visits, a year-on-year fall of 7%. Similarweb’s data captures visits to BBC.com and bbc.co.uk meaning that visits for the BBC’s entertainment content will also be included.

Among the sites that saw the biggest falls in traffic this month were conservative US publisher Daily Wire (down 36% year-on-year to 21 million visits) and bloomberg.com (29.1 million visits, down 24% year-on-year).

Among the ten biggest websites, only Dotdash Meredith-owned website People.com and the BBC (134.6 million visits, up 7%) grew year-on-year.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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 which do not fall under news, culture and lifestyle in its definition.

Press Gazette uses Similarweb data for its US and worldwide top 50 English-language news ranking stories so we can compare figures across publishers, who differ in how they measure their own audience data.

June 2023

CNN overtook the New York Times to become the biggest news website in the US in June, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly top 50 ranking.

Historically CNN had been above the New York Times but the newspaper brand overtook the broadcaster in February 2022 after it bought the Wordle game and had remained above ever since.

Visits to the CNN website were up 5% year-on-year to 458 million in June, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Visits to the New York Times website meanwhile were down 9% to 423.2 million pushing the newspaper brand into second position. In recent months, CNN has been closing the gap on the New York Times as web traffic to nytimes.com has consistently fallen compared to 2022, possibly in part due to falling interest in the popular game Wordle.

CNN and the New York Times were among several websites that changed ranks among the top ten.

The BBC climbed one place in June to sixth position as visits to the UK broadcaster’s website were up 26% year-on-year (152.7 million visits). It was the fastest-growing top ten brand by number of visits. While Similarweb’s data captures visits to BBC.com meaning that visits for the BBC’s entertainment content will also be included, the corporation has recently ramped up its editorial presence in the US.

Microsoft aggregator MSN and Fox News meanwhile swapped positions in June. MSN climbed to third place with 289.5 million visits (up 6% year-on-year) while Fox News (276.5 million, down 5%) fell to rank four.

Among the ten biggest websites, USA Today was the second-fastest for growth (124.8 million visits, up 23%). The Gannett-owned brand was the only large news site other than the BBC to see double-digit audience growth in June. USA Today climbed three places in June to enter the top ten in tenth position.

Across the top 50 as a whole, cbsnews.com was the fastest-growing (75.5 million visits, up 71% year-on-year). The news website of the US broadcaster has enjoyed a recent strong run of growth and was also this month’s fastest growing top 50 news website worldwide.

Second-fastest growing in the top 50 was The Sun’s US edition (57 million visits, up 69%) while fellow British newsbrand The Independent (35 million visits, up 66%) was fourth-fastest growing. Like the BBC, both have recently invested in ramping up their US presence.

Among the sites that saw the biggest falls in traffic this month were conservative US publisher Daily Wire (down 43% year-on-year to 23.1 million visits) and digital home of Hearst print title San Francisco Chronicle, sfgate.com (24.7 million visits, down 29% year-on-year). Hearst also operates a paywalled premium website serving the city, sfchronicle.com, which is not included in the top 50.

May 2023

The Sun was the fastest-growing newsbrand in the US in May for the second month in a row, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly top 50 ranking.

There were 69 million visits to the website of the UK tabloid’s US edition, which launched in 2020, an increase of 80% compared to May last year.

It was followed by cbsnews.com which has similarly enjoyed a recent strong run of growth (58.9 million visits, up 43% year-on-year) and NBC Universal-owned MSNBC (20.1 million visits, up 37%).

Meanwhile, the website of another British newsbrand also seeking to expand further in the US, The Independent, also made the top ten fastest-growing list. Visits to independent.co.uk were up 33% to 29.7 million.

Among the top ten sites by number of visits, there was little year-on-year growth. Visits to the BBC were up 1% to 142.1 million, while MSN saw virtually no change compared to last May (278.5 million visits).

In contrast, much of the top ten saw large falls. The biggest drop was seen by the New York Times (432.1 million visits, down 24% year-on-year) and Google News (144.2 million visits, down 20%).

Yahoo Finance (142 million visits, down 19%), Washington Post (124.8 million, down 19%), Mail Online (118.9 million, down 10%) and celebrity-focused site People (116.3 million, down 13%) also saw double-digit falls.

The New York Times maintained its spot at the top of the table, although second-place CNN continues to close the gap. CNN grew 3% month-on-month while the New York Times’ audience was largely static. The New York Times’ fall in traffic is possibly linked to declining interest in the Wordle puzzle and, like other titles, less news interest compared to the early months of the Ukraine war last year.

While the ranking of the top five brands remained unchanged, with Fox News, MSN and New York Post rounding out the top five, the BBC fell one place to rank seven after climbing last month, while Google News was up to rank six.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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 which do not fall under news, culture and lifestyle in its definition.

Press Gazette uses Similarweb data for its US and worldwide top 50 English-language news ranking stories so we can compare figures across publishers, who differ in how they measure their own audience data.

April 2023

The Sun’s US edition retook its place at the top of the list as the fastest-growing newsbrand in the US in April, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly top 50 ranking.

Last month the US edition of the UK tabloid was third-fastest growing behind Substack and CBS News. It last topped the list for fastest-growing site in October last year.

Second fastest-growing in April was CBS News which has similarly enjoyed a recent strong run of growth (51.9 million visits in April, up 51%), according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.

Among the ten largest sites by number of visits, fastest growing was USA Today up 26% to 118.8 million.

It was followed by News Corp-owned Fox News. Visits to the site were up 5% year-on-year to 290.9 million, amid a series of legal controversies involving the cable broadcaster concerning the 2020 US election.

No other top ten site saw visits increase in April. In contrast a number of them - washingtonpost.com (121.2 million visits, down 14% year-on-year), Google News (137.6 million, down 19%), Yahoo Finance (128.9 million, down 19%) and the New York Times (430.2 million visits, down 26%) - saw double-digit falls in visits.

The New York Times’ continued fall in traffic is possibly linked to falling interest in Wordle and, like other titles, a loss of the audience boost that came with the early months of the Ukraine war last year.

Despite falling traffic, the New York Times maintained its spot as the biggest site in the US followed by CNN (416.7 million visits), Fox News and msn.com (261 million visits).

Despite a small drop in visits the BBC (down 1% year-on-year, 138.2 million visits) climbed two places in the ranking compared to March - coming in sixth position in April. The BBC recently stepped up its editorial investment in the US.

March 2023

The New York Times saw the biggest drop in US traffic among the top 50 websites in the country in March, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

The number of visits to nytimes.com fell 35% to 452.4 million - echoing both a similar fall in Press Gazette’s global top 50 ranking and the site’s 21% fall in February’s US ranking.

The decline is potentially linked to declining interest in word game Wordle, which went viral early last year and quickly snapped up by the New York Times, and a widespread fall in year-on-year traffic comparisons following a surge in news interest about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The New York Times was also one of eight top ten sites by number of visits that saw a fall in traffic in March, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The site with the second largest year-on-year fall in the top ten was Google News (146.9 million visits, down 25%) followed by washingtonpost.com (127.4 million visits, down 23%), cnn.com (446.2 million visits, also down 23%) and bbc.com and bbc.co.uk (141.7 million visits, down 21%).

CNBC was the fastest-growing top ten site (128.9 million visits, up 9% year-on-year).

Within the overall top 50, the fastest-growing site was newsletter platform Substack to which US visits were up 37% to 30.3 million. Second-fastest growing was cbsnews.com (52.8 million visits, up 32%) while the Sun’s US edition came in third (63.6 million, up 27%) continuing its run of rapid growth since launching across the Atlantic in 2020.

Despite its year-on-year audience fall, the New York Times remains the largest site by number of visits in the US top 50. It was followed by CNN, foxnews.com (305.6 million) and msn.com (297.8 million visits). Fox News rose one place up March’s ranking to displace MSN from third place.

Yahoo Finance (148.4 million visits, rank six), Google News (rank seven) and cnbc.com (rank ten) were the other sites at the top of the table to climb up the ranking in March.

The Sun US edition saw the largest drop in places among the top 50, falling from rank 15 in February to rank 20 in March although it's year-on-year growth continued to be strong.

February 2023

The Sun’s US edition was one of the fastest-growing websites in the US in February, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

The number of visits to the US edition of the UK tabloid were up 56% to reach 71.5 million in February, making it the second fastest-growing site in the US top 50. The Sun’s US edition has grown rapidly since launching in the US in 2020 and is now ranked 15th in the US top 50 - a gain of four places since last month.

Fastest-growing was entertainment site Variety.com (27.4 million visits, up 67%), according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb, while cbsnews.com was third-fastest growing (47 million visits, up 43%).

The New York Times, which has regularly appeared among the fastest-growing sites in this ranking in the past year, saw its traffic fall by 21% to 418.6 million in February - reflective of its global traffic trend.

Among the top ten sites by audience size, only three saw an increase in traffic. They were people.com (up 36% year-on-year to 122.1 million), nypost.com (up 12% to 151.1 million) and Microsoft news aggregator MSN (up 9% to 298.3 million).

Despite the large fall in visits, The New York Times retained its spot at the top of the ranking for number of visits. It was followed by CNN (400.3 million visits), msn.com and foxnews.com (291.3 million).

This month, News Corp-owned nypost.com (151.1 million visits, up 12% year-on-year) entered the top five, displacing Google News which fell to eighth place (131.1 million visits, down 26%).

The BBC climbed one place in the ranking to sixth (135.8 million, down 10% year-on-year).

Today.com (24.7 million visits, up 33% year-on-year) saw the biggest jump in rank, climbing six places to rank 39.

The site of celebrity and entertainment magazine Us Weekly (Usmagazine.com) meanwhile saw the biggest drop, falling eight places to rank 50 (18.3 million visits, down 23% year-on-year).

January 2023

CBS News was for the second month in a row the fastest-growing news site in the US, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

The number of visits to the website of the US broadcaster were up 79% year-on-year to 56.7 million in January.

It was followed by the nytimes.com (488.3 million visits, up 50% year-on-year), entertainment news provider variety.com (31.4 million visits, up 43%) and the-sun.com (62.7 million visits, up 40%).

The Sun’s US edition has grown rapidly since launching in the US in 2020. The site’s audience has more than quadrupled in the last two years from just under 13 million 24 months ago.

Among just the top ten sites by audience size, the New York Times was again the fastest-growing (CBS ranks 22nd). It was followed by msn.com (406.4 million visits, up 37%), People.com (139.6 million, up 31%), nypost.com (162.4 million, up 14%) and combined visits to bbc.com & bbc.co.uk (149.8 million, up 11%).

The New York Times retained its spot at the top of the ranking for number of visits in a top five that remained unchanged from last month. It was followed by CNN (482.6 million visits), msn.com (406.4 million), foxnews.com (326 million) and Google News (166.6 million).

Among the sites that saw the biggest jumps in rank in January, compared to the previous month were three local news sites that each jumped six places. The website of the Los Angeles Times (38.3 million visits climbed to 29th place), San Francisco’s sfgate.com (34.1 million visits) climbed to rank 32, while Utah local ksl.com (22 million visits was up to 44th place.

The Atlantic’s website (27.6 million visits) saw the largest drop (down 7 places to 38, while today.com (22 million visits) fell 5 places to rank 45.

Two sites that did not make December’s top 50 entered the list this month. They were conservative news sites epochtimes.com (23.3 million visits) which entered in 43 place and Advance’s New Jersey site, nj.com (18.7 million visits) which entered in 50th position.

December 2022

Two British newsbrands featured among the top five fastest-growing top ten newsbrands in the US in December, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

The number of visits to Mail Online were up 14% year-on-year to 131.9 million making it the third-fastest growing site.

Visits to the BBC were up 11% to reach 141.1 million, making it the fourth-fastest growing. The BBC has in recent months seen consistent growth in its US traffic, having stepped up its editorial investment in the US.

Taking the top spot for growth among the ten biggest sites was once again the New York Times. Visits to nytimes.com increased 57% year-on-year to 488.4 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Second-fastest growing for another month meanwhile was Microsoft’s news aggregator msn.com (385.4 million visits, up 29%).

The New York Times retained its spot at the top of the ranking for number of visits, while CNN maintained its second place (448.6 million visits) and msn.com its third spot.

Washingtonpost.com (144.6 million visits) dropped two ranks from sixth place in November to eighth this month, swapping places with nypost.com (152 million visits).

The Sun’s US edition was among the news sites that saw the biggest jump in rank between November and December. The-sun.com climbed five places to rank 18 in December with 62.2 million visits, up 49% year-on-year.

Substack.com (27 million visits) and today.com (25.9 million visits) also saw large changes in rank, climbing six and eight places respectively.

Among the whole top 50 list, the fastest-growing news website in December was cbsnews.com (51.3 million visits, up 84% year-on-year). It was followed by entertainment newsbrand variety.com (29.1 million visits, up 65%) and last month’s fastest-growing site nytimes.com. The-sun.com was fourth fastest-growing.

The only site not in November’s top 50 ranking to enter the list this month was celebrity news specialist Us Weekly. There were 22.4 million visits to its site usmagazine.com (rank 46).

November 2022

The New York Times was the fastest-growing news website in the US in November while the BBC was one of the strongest-performing large websites , according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

Of the top ten biggest English-language sites by number of visits, the New York Times grew the most year-on-year (535.1 million visits (up 81%), according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The NYT was followed by Microsoft news aggregator, msn.com (383.9 million visits, up 36%) and the BBC (140.7 million visits, up 22%). Fourth fastest-growing among the top ten was CNN with 506.8 million visits (up 14% year-on-year).

Although the BBC sites saw slightly less visits in November compared to October, the UK public broadcaster has been among the top three large sites in the US for year-on-year growth since September. The BBC has in recent months ramped up its investment in the US, doubling its editorial staff.

In total eight of the top ten sites in the US saw more traffic in November than the same month last year, echoing the pattern seen in Press Gazette’s global ranking this month.

The New York Times retained its spot at the top of the ranking for number of visits, with the frontrunners largely unchanged from the previous month.

The BBC did, however, drop one position to ninth rank, while nypost.com climbed up one spot to rank eighth (143.2 million visits).

CNN was the second-largest website in the US, while third-largest was MSN. Foxnews.com (340.5 million visits) and Google News (165 million visits) rounded out the top five on this measure.

Politico.com (rank 21, 61.4 million visits) and right-wing news site thegatewaypundit.com (rank 37, 28.1 million visits) jumped the most places this month, with both news sites climbing six positions in the ranking.

Fastest-growing among the top 50 as a whole after nytimes.com was cbsnews.com (50.8 million visits, up 73%) followed by entertainment news publisher variety.com (26.1 million visits, up 60%).

Last month’s fastest growing site in the US top 50, the-sun.com, was the eighth-fastest growing site year-on-year in November. The US digital version of the UK tabloid saw visits up 36% year-on-year to 54.1 million.

October 2022

The Sun regained its title as the fastest-growing news website in the US in October while the BBC continued its strong run of growth, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

Of the top ten biggest English-language sites by number of visits, the New York Times maintained its spot as the fastest-growing with 470.8m visits (up 67%), according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.

It was followed, however, by last month’s third-fastest growing site, the BBC, which grew 30% year-on-year (149.4m visits) to become October's second-fastest growing large site.

It comes as the BBC has ramped up investment in the US in recent months, doubling its editorial staff.

Third fastest-growing among the top ten was Microsoft’s news aggregator MSN.com with 321.9m visits (up 16% year-on-year), while the Washington Post (157m visits, up 12%) and CNBC (113.3m visits, up 8%) rounded out the top five on this measure.

Among the top ten newsbrands by number of visits in October, six recorded year-on-year traffic increases in October, with four recording growth in the double-digits. Fox News meanwhile recorded the largest drop among the top ten (264.5m visits, down 15% year-on-year).

When it comes to the largest site by number of visits, The New York Times retained its spot at the top of a table that remained largely unchanged from last month. The only change in the top ten was CNBC jumping two places to enter in tenth spot, replacing Mail Online.

CNN was again the second-largest website in the US (413m visits, up 1%), while third-largest was MSN.

Newsweek’s site saw the biggest overall drop in rank, falling 12 places to rank 33rd with 32.8m visits, a 34% fall year-on-year.

Among the top 50 as a whole, the Sun’s US edition the-sun.com regained its spot as the fastest-growing news website in the US (51 million visits, up 72% year-on-year).

It was followed by long-running politics blog realclearpolitics.com (21.1m visits, up 70%) and the New York Times.

For the second month in a row the majority (30) of the top 50 news sites saw year-on-year growth in the number of visits than falls. The US midterm elections may be a contributing factor to the increased interest in news.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. 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 which do not fall under news, culture and lifestyle in its definition.

Press Gazette uses Similarweb data for its US and worldwide top 50 English-language news ranking stories so we can compare figures across publishers, who differ in how they measure their own audience data.

September 2022

The BBC and the Mail Online were among the top three fastest-growing large newsbrands in the US in September, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

Of the top ten biggest English-language sites by number of visits, Mail Online was second-fastest growing with 116.8 million visits (an increase of 22% year-on-year), while the BBC was third fastest-growing with 142 million visits (up 21% year-on-year), according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.

They were however both beaten by the New York Times, which once again was the fastest-growing top ten site in the US (457.3 million visits, up 58%). Since acquiring word game Wordle in the first part of this year, the New York Times has seen a consistent run of audience growth.

September was a better month for US traffic to the larger newsbrands than August, with seven of the ten biggest brands recording year-on-year growth in audience, compared to just four in August. Additionally five newsbrands (New York Times, Mail Online, BBC, New York Post and MSN) recorded double-digit growth.

When it comes to the largest site by number of visits, The New York Times retained its spot at the top of the table. It was followed by CNN (419.7 million visits, up 1%) over which it extended its margin compared to August.

Third-biggest was Microsoft’s aggregator MSN (299.9 million visits, up 11%), fourth-biggest was foxnews.com (258.4 million visits, down 17%) while fifth-biggest was Google News (166.5 million visits, down 6%).

Among the top 50 as a whole, last month’s fastest-growing site, the Sun’s US edition, the-sun.com came in second place for growth this time (44.6 million visits, up 90% year-on-year). Newsletter platform Substack meanwhile was eighth-fastest growing with 21.5 million visits (up 30%).

In a departure from recent months, just over half of news sites (26) saw year-on-year growth in the number of visits. This is possibly linked to a busy US news agenda in recent weeks, with stories such as Hurricane Ian and the slowdown in the global economy likely driving increased interest in news.

August 2022

The Sun’s US edition was the fastest-growing site in the US in August, according to the latest monthly ranking of sites by Press Gazette.

There were 55.3 million visits to the-sun.com, a 150% increase year-on-year, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The UK tabloid launched its US digital edition in 2020 along with a separate US Twitter account which currently counts 9,222 followers. The Sun’s US site has seen steady growth since launch and has risen to twentieth place in our US news ranking.

The-sun.com was also the fastest growing site month-on-month with visits in August up 34% compared to July.

Of the top ten sites by number of visits, just four saw year-on-year growth in August. For the second month in a row, the New York Times, New York Post and Mail Online all saw double-digit growth. Visits to the New York Times were up 52% year-on-year to 468.7 million, while second and third-fastest growing were the New York Post (146.7 million visits, up 26%) and Mail Online (117 million visits, up 14%).

Microsoft’s news aggregator MSN was the only other site in the top ten to grow in August (292.6 million visits, up 6% year-on-year).

The New York Times remains the largest site in the US by number of visits. The legacy publisher has grown in popularity, earlier this year replacing CNN as the most popular digital newsbrand in the country. Its recent growth, as Press Gazette has reported, may in part be due to its acquisition of popular word game Wordle in the first quarter of this year.

The second-biggest site for number of visits was CNN (438.6 million visits, down 5% year-on-year) while in third place was Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News (294.3 million visits, down 10% year-on-year). MSN and Google News round out the top five.

The BBC sites (bbc.co.uk and bbc.com) were the best-ranked British domains among the US top 50 (rank nine, 123.2 million visits). It narrowly beat Mail Online (tenth place).

Like July, August was overall a slow month for growth as just 17 sites of the top 50 saw year-on-year increases in their audience. It’s probable that year-on-year traffic declines for many sites reflect a return to more stable traffic patterns after a surge of interest to news sites in 2020 and 2021.

July 2022

The Mail Online was one of only three top ten sites by number of visits to grow its US audience in July, according to the latest monthly ranking of news websites from Press Gazette.

US visits to dailymail.co.uk were up 15% year-on-year to reach 115.7 million, according to digital intelligence platform Similarweb. It was beaten only by the New York Times (458.7 million visits, up 55%) and New York Post (163.9 million visits, up 41%). As Press Gazette has reported in recent months, the New York Times has seen continued strong audience growth in 2022 which may in part be due to its acquisition of popular word game Wordle in the first quarter of this year.

Yahoo Finance (155.9 million visits, down 14% year-on-year) and Google News (174.3 million visits, down 13%) saw the biggest slumps in growth of the top ten sites.

Among the top 50 as a whole, the fastest growing site was internet culture site dailydot.com (20.2 million visits, up 178%). It was followed by the US website of UK tabloid The Sun (41.1 million visits, up 78%) and news aggregator Newsbreak (19.8 million visits, up 55%).

Mail Online also performed well among the top 50 as a whole, ranking tenth for year-on-year growth in this wider group.

The most popular online news source in the US was the New York Times which earlier this year knocked CNN off its top spot (419.9 million visits, down 6% year-on-year). Third most popular was foxnews.com (286.9 million visits, down 5%), which was followed by Microsoft’s msn.com (275.7 million visits, down 4%), and Google News.

Just 17 sites in the top 50 saw higher traffic this July compared to the same month in 2021. Content analytics firm Chartbeat has said that while news traffic in 2021 was more stable than 2020 where the pandemic and US election pushed readership very high in some months, some 2020 readership gains persisted in 2021. This month’s year-on-year traffic decline may therefore reflect a return to more stable traffic patterns, especially as interest in the Ukraine war has waned.

Update: this article and its charts was amended on 23 August to reflect a revised set of traffic figures received from Similarweb. The visit data for a number of websites mentioned in this article have been changed .

June 2022

The New York Times was again the fastest-growing top ten news site in the US in June, according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking.

Visits to the US publisher’s site were up 21% year-on-year to 310.4 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The New York Times Company earlier this month reported that it had added about 180,000 net digital-only subscribers in the second quarter of the year - a slowdown in growth compared to previous quarters. The company’s All Digital Access tier, which includes its games and cooking content, however recorded its highest ever number of new subscribers. The NYT also notably acquired the online game Wordle in February this year.

Microsoft’s news aggregator and portal MSN was the only other top ten site by number of visits to see year-on-year growth in June (340.8 million visits, up 1%).

Other major sites saw traffic fall or stay static. There were 99.4 million visits to nypost.com (no change year-on-year), 105 million to business news site Cnbc.com (down 1%) and 103.3 million to Yahoo News (down 1%).

CNN was once again the biggest news site in the US in June (373 million visits, down 5% year-on-year). It was followed by msn.com, nytimes.com, foxnews.com (240.7 million, down 6%) and Google News (174.8 million, down 10%) in a top five largely unchanged from recent months.

The top-ranked British newsbrand in the US list remains Mail Online although it this month dropped out of the top ten to eleventh spot (99.1 million visits, up 8% year-on-year but down 11% month-on-month). The BBC was ranked twelfth (87.3 million, down 19%) while the Guardian site maintained its rank of 16 (54.3 million visits, down 12% year-on-year).

Among the whole top 50, the fastest growing site was again instapundit.com. Visits to the popular political blog were up more than 2,500 times to 17 million, following a lull in the site’s traffic in the same month last year according to Similarweb’s analytics.

Sportz Bonanza, the fastest growing site worldwide this month, also grew sharply year-on-year in the US with visits up 4,698% to 45.9 million.The independent.co.uk was the ninth-fastest growing with visits up 12% to 16.7 million.

May 2022

The New York Times topped the list for the fastest-growing top ten news site in the US for the third month in a row.

Of the top ten English-language sites in the US by number of visits in May, nytimes.com saw the most year-on-year growth (352.2 million visits, up 36%), according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The publisher, which released its first quarter results in April put much of its growth down to acquisition of viral game Wordle. The New York-based title gained an impressive 301,000 new digital subscribers in the first quarter, although it said this was its slowest gain in over a year.

It was followed by the website of Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid, nypost.com which had 119 million visitors in May, an increase of 27% on the same month in 2021.

Website of British mid-market daily, Mail Online, was the third fastest growing site in the US top ten and its performance in May was even better in May than April. Visits to its site were up 21% to 111.9 million (in April it grew 16% year-on-year).

Microsoft’s news aggregator MSN (347.6 million visits, up7%) was the only other top ten site to see more traffic year-on-year.

Among the whole top 50, the fastest growing site was instapundit.com. The long-standing blog by Glen Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, is one of the most popular blogs on the internet. In May, Reynold’s site counted 204.2 million visits (up from a lull in 2021 when visits fell to less than 10,000 in some months according to Similarweb figures).

CNN maintained its position atop the US table as the biggest site in the US in May (393.2 million visits, no change year-on-year). It was followed by nytimes.com, msn.com (347.6 million visits, foxnews.com (248.4 million visits) and Google News (179.4m).

Echoing the global picture, the majority of sites saw more visits in May than April. The BBC was one of just eight sites that saw less traffic in May than the previous month.

The BBC was also one of just three British newsbrands in the top half of the list (100.3 million visits, ranked 12). Best-ranked British newsbrand was ninth-place Mail Online (111.9 million visits, up 21% year-on-year). Theguardian.com, in sixteenth place, had 60.7 million visits, down 3% year-on-year). The Mail Online’s US growth in recent months has moved the site, owned by Lord Rothermere's DMGT up the table where it has replaced the BBC as the only British name in the US top ten. Similarweb data includes traffic to all BBC sites and not just its news pages.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps.

Press Gazette uses Similarweb data for its US and global top 50 news site ranking stories so we can compare figures across publishers, who differ in how they measure their own audience data.

April 2022

While CNN still sits atop the list of biggest websites for US news, the New York Times has continued its strong recent run as the fastest growing major news site in the country for the second month in a row.

Of the top ten English-language sites in the US by number of visits in April, the New York Times site saw the most year-on-year growth with visits up 30% to 355.5m, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The publisher, which released its first quarter results earlier this month, said its acquisition of viral game Wordle had brought "an unprecedented tens of millions of new users to The Times".

The New York Times was one of a minority of sites in the top 50 that saw more traffic this April compared to the same month last year, echoing the picture in our global top 50 ranking. Only 17 of the top 50 US news sites saw year-on-year traffic gains in April, compared to half of all sites last month .

The NY Times was followed by the site of US tabloid New York Post, which saw the second-highest year-on-year growth in traffic (109.7m visits, up 16%) among the ten most visited sites. It was followed by Mail Online (103.3m visits, also up 16%). Microsoft’s news aggregator MSN (335.1 visits, up 7%) and Yahoo’s news aggregator (103.8m visits, up 5%) were the only other top ten sites with more traffic this April than in April 2021.

As with the global ranking, news sites saw fewer visits from the US in April compared to March as interest in the Ukraine conflict, entering its fourth month, is likely to be waning. Only Atlanta Black Star saw a significant month-on-month increase in traffic (24.6m visits, up 18%.

The black news site (which is placed 38th in the ranking) was also the fastest growing site year-on-year in the top 50 with visits up 74%.

British news sites also did well in April with three UK newsbrands among the ten fastest growing news sites year-on-year in the top 50. The Sun’s US digital edition continued its strong recent audience growth and was the second fastest growing site in the top 50 (17.7m visits, up 67%). Next best-placed UK newsbrand was Mail Online, which was followed by The Independent (181.1m visits, up 16%).

As in March, mainstream newsbrands featured strongly in the top ten sites for year-on-year growth taking seven of the top ten spots.

When it comes to number of visits, Mail Online was the only British site in a US-dominated top ten. The DMGT-owned site, which placed 12th last month, moved up three places in the ranking coming in ninth place in April. In contrast the BBC, which has tended to be the only British name in the top ten, fell down the ranking to twelfth place (101m visits, down 11% year-on-year). Similarweb data includes traffic to all BBC sites and not just its news pages.

Leading a top five unchanged from last month, CNN was the biggest site in the US in April (367.5m visits), followed by nytimes.com, msn.com, foxnews.com (229.9m visits) and Google News (170.6m).

In contrast to the UK ranking, a significant number of conservative and right-wing news sites continue to feature in the US top 50. Among them are drudgereport.com (42.1m visits, rank 23), breitbart.com (41m visits, rank 24), thegatewaypundit.com (26.6m visits, rank 36),
newsmax.com (25.2m visits, rank 37), zerohedge.com (22.6m visits, rank 39), theepochtimes.com (20.1m visits, rank 42), and dailywire.com (18.5m visits, rank 44).

March 2022

The New York Times was the fastest growing major news site in the US in March 2022, as mainstream news brands showed strong growth overall.

Of the top ten sites by number of visits in March, the website of the US daily saw the strongest growth with 420.4m visits during the month, an increase of 47% compared to March 2021 according to Similarweb data. The increase is likely in part due to the publisher's acquisition of highly popular word game Wordle. Similarweb data on top search terms for The New York Times' site reveals that Wordle was the most popular organic search term leading to the publisher's site.

Among the bigger publishers, it was followed for growth by Yahoo News (116.3m visits, up 16%), Microsoft news aggregator MSN (365.4m visits, up 12%), the BBC (124.8m visits, up 11%) and Fox News (269.5m visits, up 8%).

In contrast to recent months where the bigger sites have tended to see year-on-year falls in traffic, traffic to mainstream brands was up in March, likely driven by a surge of interest in news about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a search for trusted sources of information.

Across the top 50 sites overall, the Sun’s US digital edition maintained its long run of audience growth and was the fastest growing site overall year-on-year (21m visits, 124% growth). The US digital version of the UK tabloid was ranked 43rd overall in terms of number of visits and it has slowly moved up the table in recent months.

The second fastest growing site in the top 50 in March was Reuters.com (44.7m visits, up 60%), followed by nytimes.com, independent.co.uk (23.3m visits, up 47%) and entertainment news site variety.com (20.5m visits, up 45%).

This month, mainstream newsbrands and legacy names featured strongly among the fastest growing sites in the top 50, in a departure from recent months when the fastest growing sites have tended to be entertainment, foreign or more niche news sites.

When it comes to number of visits, CNN was the biggest site in the US in March (465.1m visits). It was followed by nytimes.com, msn.com, foxnews.com and Google News (196.3m visits).

The BBC was the only non-US site among the top ten, ranked in eighth place with 124.8m visits. The Daily Mail’s US site was the best-ranked British newspaper brand (in 12th place with 114.1m visits). Similarweb data includes traffic to all BBC sites and not just its news pages.

Half the sites in the top 50 saw more traffic this March compared to the same month last year.

Several conservative and right-wing sites, some of which benefited from traffic bumps during Trump’s tenure, saw audience falls in March. Newsmax.com’s visits were down 10% year-on-year (29m visits), while visits to theepochtimes.com were down 2% (25.4m visits). Thegatewaypundit.com (28.2m visits) and far-right blog zerohedge.com (25.1m visits) however saw traffic increases of 8% and 11% respectively.

January 2022

The Sun's US digital edition continued its recent run of audience growth in January with 94% year-on-year growth in visits.

The UK tabloid launched a US website in January 2020 and since then the site has seen significant growth recording its biggest audience yet this January. There were 21.4m visits to the-sun.com, placing it in 45th place in Press Gazette’s monthly ranking of the top 50 news sites in the US.

Only Atlanta BlackStar (34.2m visits- 128% increase year-on-year) outperformed the UK title for growth, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.

Celebrity news publication people.com was the only other site to see double-digit growth (74.6m visits - up 13%).

Among the ten biggest sites by audience size only MSN’s audience grew year-on-year. Microsoft’s news aggregator received 357.8m visits in January, up 1%.

The remainder of the household names saw traffic fall.

US websites will have benefited from large surges in traffic during the pandemic and the US election, with current President Biden taking office last January. Last January also saw the Capitol insurrection in Washington DC. Current traffic, while down year-on-year, is in the case of some big names including CNN and New York Times better this January than compared to the same month in 2019 and 2020 (pre-pandemic).

CNN, the biggest news site in the US, had 401m visits in January (down 42% year-on-year). The second-biggest site by volume of visits was MSN. Third-biggest site nytimes.com received 271.1m visits (down 33%). It was followed by Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News (262.4m visits - down 22%) and Google News (191.3m visits - down 27%). Of the top ten sites with the most visits, Bezos-owned Washington Post saw the biggest fall compared to January 2021 (126.2m visits - down 47%).

Mail Online (104.6m visits - down 5% year-on-year) narrowly beat the BBC (103.1m visits - down 20%) as the top-ranked British site in the US coming in tenth ahead of the UK public broadcaster in 11th place. Similarweb data includes traffic to all BBC sites and not just its news pages.

Theguardian.com was the only other British publisher in the top half of the ranking, coming in 15th position with 63.4m visits.

December 2021

The Sun's US digital edition was one of the fastest-growing news sites year-on-year in the US in December, recording growth of over 100%.

The UK tabloid's website received 18.3m visits in December - an increase of 111% compared to the same month in 2020, according to data from digital intelligence platform, Similarweb. It was only outperformed by US title Atlanta Blackstar which increased its traffic by 125% year-on-year (35.8m visits).

The Sun and Atlanta Blackstar were among just seven sites that recorded year-on-year growth in visits as December saw another month of slow news traffic in the US. No other site saw visit growth comparable to the leading two players, with third fastest-growing site people.com seeing visits up 12% to 68.3m.

Only two of the top ten sites by number of visits saw year-on-year growth: MSN.com (359.5m visits - up 3%) and Murdoch-owned New York Post (108.5m visits - an increase of 1%).

Instead six of the ten biggest sites for volume of visits saw double-digit falls in traffic. Visits to the Washington Post website were down 32% to 126.3m, while visits to CNN were down 27% compared to last December at 399.4m.

News sites across the globe benefited from a surge in traffic in 2020 due to both the Covid-19 pandemic and the US presidential election. The effect of the latter is naturally likely to be have been more pronounced in the US. Data shows that traffic to leading US news sites is far below 2020 levels.

CNN retained its position as the number one online news source in the US in terms of visits, although Microsoft's news aggregator MSN is not far behind with 50m fewer visits.

Fox News remained the third most popular site in December (262.2m visits - down 10% year-on-year). Nytimes.com and Google News were the two remaining sites in the top five in a list that remained unchanged from November.

Mail Online was the top-ranked British site in the US coming in at 11th place (102.1m visits − down 4%), this month beating the BBC which had 98.8m visits in December. Similarweb data includes traffic to all BBC sites and not just its news pages.

Fox News is among just 12 sites that saw less traffic in December than November. While year-on-year comparisons reveal most sites did worse for traffic in 2021, most sites did better month-on-month in December.

November 2021

November was generally a slowdown for traffic for the leading US news sites, according to Press Gazette’s latest look at the biggest websites for news sites in America.

Of the top ten sites by number of visits in November, just two saw more traffic this November than in the same month last year. MSN.com had 342.6 million visits - up 1%, while Yahoo! Finance saw 174.1 million visits - an increase of 11%.

The rest saw double-digit falls in traffic compared to last November when many US news sites enjoyed a bumper month for traffic thanks to the country's presidential election.

Of the leading sites, nytimes.com saw the biggest fall in traffic (250.8 million visits - down 51% year-on-year). It was closely followed by CNN (384.1 million visits - down 50%) and washingtonpost.com (116.8 million visits - also down 50%).

Overall, CNN maintained its leading position as the number one news site in the US in terms of visits, according to data from Similarweb. It is however, closely followed by Microsoft's news aggregator MSN, which in recent months has been narrowing the gap on the broadcaster's digital news offering. In November, CNN counted 41.5 million more visits than MSN. In contrast in early 2019 CNN regularly saw almost twice the number of visits as MSN.

Fox News was the third most popular site in November (277 million visits - down 40%). Nytimes.com and Google News round out the list of the top five sites for visits.

No British sites made it into the top sites for volume of visits. The highest ranked British site, the BBC, came in 11th place with 94 million visits. Instead, all the leading sites were homegrown US brands.

After temporarily losing its top spot to The Sun in October, entertainment and lifestyle news site gazillions.com was once again the fastest growing online news site (48.2 million visits - up 581%).

It was followed in second place by Atlanta Black Star (26.4 million visits - an increase of 130%). Last month's fastest growing top 50 site, The-sun.com, came third with 18.5 million visits (a year-on-year increase of 61%). The UK tabloid's digital edition narrowly made it into the top 50 in 48th place.

A number of right-wing and far-right news sites continue to feature in the US top 50 in contrast to the UK list. Best-ranked is breitbart.com (50.7 million visits - 20th place ). Also making the top 50 are right-wing news aggregator drudgereport.com (42.2 million visits - 24th position), thegatewaypundit.com (31.5 million visits - 31st position), newsmax.com (30.2 million visits - 32nd position), zerohedge.com (23.8 million visits - 39th position), and theepochtimes.com (21.3 million visits - 42nd place). All these sites however, saw significant double-digit year-on-year falls in number of visits.

October 2021

UK tabloid The Sun was the fastest-growing news site in the US in October, according to Press Gazette’s latest look at the biggest websites for news sites in America.

• Top 50 most popular news websites in the UK (monthly ranking)
• Top 50 most popular news websites in the world (monthly ranking)

The-sun.com had 18.8 million visits (up 64% year-on-year) - ranking it number 48 in our top 50 list. It was followed in second place by Atlanta Black Star (26.6 million visits - an increase of 57%), according to data from web analytics firm, Similarweb.

Household names, US News (43.9 million visits - up 3%) and Microsoft’s news and app platform, MSN (341.8 million visits - up 2%) were also among the top ten fastest-growing sites.

Among the sites with the biggest falls in traffic compared to last October were politics-focused thehill.com (37.8 million visits - down 73%) and recent Axel Springer acquisition, politico.com (37 million visits - down 65%). Both sites likely benefited from a surge in interest for US election-related news last year, as would have Newsweek.com, the site that recorded the biggest year-on-year drop in October (21.7 million visits - down a staggering 149%).

Looking at the top ten sites for volume of visits, only MSN and Yahoo! Finance saw any year-on-year growth. MSN had 341.8 million visits - up 2%, while visits to Yahoo! Finance were up 7% compared to October 2020 at 164.7 million. The rest of the leading sites saw falls in traffic. The number of people accessing washingtonpost.com was down 53% (115.8 million visits), while the number of visits to cnn.com (364.3 million) was 38% lower than in the same month last year. Like-for-like comparisons will have been affected by the surge in traffic last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the US presidential election.

At the top, CNN continues to lead when it comes to the number of visits racked up by its mobile and desktop sites at 364.3 million. MSN has, however, eaten into CNN’s dominance in recent months. In October, CNN counted just 22.4 million more visits than MSN’s total of 341.8 million. In January 2019 (the earliest date for which we have data), CNN led MSN by a margin of 215.5 million visits. The Microsoft platform has seen its audience grow by over 40% since January 2019. Fox News - once second to CNN - is now the third most popular site in terms of visits (257.2 million visits in October).

The most popular news sites in the US tend to be homegrown. The BBC is the best-ranked international site with its two domains (BBC.com and bbc.co.uk) together counting 96.9 million visits in October.

September 2021

Once again celebrity and entertainment news site Gazillions.com came out on top as the fastest-growing site in the US.

There were 19.5 million visits to the new entertainment site - an increase of 870% - according to data from web analytics firm Similarweb.

It was followed by standardnews.com, which is owned by US-based Spine Media (32 million visits - up 440%).

As seen in previous months, right-wing sites also performed well in terms of year-on-year growth in visits. Third-place theepochtimes.com had 19.6 million visits (up 162%) while there were 29.5 million visits to pro-Trump nexsmax.com (up 144%). Both sites score badly when it comes to website rating tool NewsGuard's trust scores.

The highest-ranked British site for year-on-year growth was The Sun. The UK tabloid's digital edition the-sun.com was the fifth fastest growing news site in the US counting 16 million visits - a year-on-year increase of 65%.

Recent Axel Springer acquisition Politico.com saw the largest year-on-year fall in traffic (37.8 million visits - down 42%). As in recent months, theatlantic.com has also seen year-on-year traffic declines (22.7 million visits - down 40%) while visits to politics-focused thehill.com were down 39% to 38.3 million. Like-for-like comparisons will be impacted by the surge in traffic to coronavirus-related content last year.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, standardnews.com came out on top with an increase of 293% on the number of visits in August. Only four other sites (theverge.com, usmagazine.com, cbsnews.com and the-sun.com) saw monthly traffic growth although of far less proportions.

The website of cable broadcaster CNN continues to have by far the biggest audience share overall and enjoys a similar position of dominance as the BBC in the UK. Cnn.com was the most visited site in September with 378.7 million visits. It was followed by MSN.com (329.3 million visits), foxnews.com (266.3 million) and nytimes.com (252.7 million visits). Press Gazette has ranked MSN and Yahoo! News for the first time this month.

The BBC’s sites was the only British site in the top ten when it came to volume of visits. Similarweb analytics however include visits to BBC’s main homepage - not just its news page.

As in previous months, only a minority (15 in September) of the top 50 sites saw year-on-year traffic increases.

August 2021

Celebrity and entertainment news site Gazillions.com was again the fastest-growing site in the US, according to Press Gazette’s analysis of traffic to the most popular English-language news websites.

Right-wing sites also performed well in terms of year-on-year growth in visits.

Gazillions.com, which launched at the end of 2019, was the single fastest-growing site according to data from web analytics firm Similarweb. In the year to August 2021 visits were up more than 1,262% (a more than 10-fold increase) from 2.1 million in August 2020 to 29.2 million in August 2021 as the new site picked up audience.

It was followed in second place by theepochtimes.com (21.1 million visits - up 186%) and pro-Trump nexsmax.com (33.1 million visits - up 166%). Both sites have regularly appeared among the leading five sites for year-on-year growth in our ranking and their growth reflects the increasing audience to many right-leaning sites in recent years.

The US digital edition of British tabloid The Sun also stayed in the top five for another month. There were 15.9 million visits (an increase of 38%) to the-sun.com.

At the foot of the list, sites that saw large year-on-year falls in traffic included forbes.com (56.1 million visits - down 38%), politico.com (46.1 million visits - down 36%), cbsnews.com (25.7 million visits - down 36%) and thehill.com (45 million visits - down 33%). Like-for-like comparisons will be impacted by the surge in traffic to coronavirus-related content last year.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, gazillions.com also came out on top with an increase of 65% on the number of visits in July. Reuters.com also performed well with 32.9 million visits (an increase of 14%) as did atlantablackstar.com which specialises in news and culture aimed at a black audience (25.3 million visits in August -up 14%).

The website of cable broadcaster CNN continues to have by far the biggest audience share overall. Cnn.com was the most visited site in June with 423.5 million visits. This was followed by foxnews.com (284.9 million visits). and nytimes.com (271.1 million visits).

The BBC’s sites and Mail Online were the two British sites in the top ten for volume of visits. Similarweb analytics however include visits to BBC’s main homepage - not just its news page.

As in previous months, only a minority (12 in August) of the top 50 sites saw year-on-year traffic increases. Unlike recent months however, mainstream news sites featured in the list this time with the-sun.com, apnews.com, usnews.com, finance.yahoo.com, wsj.com, newsweek.com and reuters.com recording year-on-year growth.

July 2021

For the second month in a row, recently launched celebrity and lifestyle site Gazillions.com was the fastest growing site in the US, while right-wing sites also performed well in terms of year-on-year growth in visits.

Gazillions.com which brands itself as news focused on “pop culture, luxurious lifestyle, and global entertainment” was the single fastest-growing site according to data from web analytics firm Similarweb. In the year to July 2021. Visits were up more than 542% (over 5 times) from 692,361 in June 2020 to 2.8 million in July 2021.

It was followed in second place by theepochtimes.com (23.5 million visits - up 72%) and pro-Trump nexsmax.com (33.5 million visits - up 165%). Both sites were among the leading five sites for year-on-year growth in June’s ranking. Their growth reflects a surge in visits to right-leaning sites as a whole over the last year.

This month, the US digital edition of British tabloid The Sun, also entered the top five. The-sun.com racked up 18.1 million visits (up 54%), putting it in fifth place for year-on-year growth in visits although it came in at 47 out of 50 for volume of visits.

At the foot of the list, the BBC’s digital properties BBC.com and BBC.co.uk saw the biggest relative year-on-year fall in traffic with visits down 18% to 108.2 million - although BBC sites did well in terms of overall number of visits, coming in at six out of 50). Other sites that saw large falls in traffic compared to July 2020 were Forbes.com (visits decreased by 46% to 53.2 million) and political news site the hill.com (visits were down by 39% to 43 million). Like-for-like comparisons will be impacted by the surge in traffic to coronavirus-related content last year.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, atlantablackstar which specialises in news and culture aimed at a black audience was the fastest-growing site in July 2021 compared to June 2021. The site which takes an African American perspective on politics racked up 22.2 million visits in July (up 16%). The-sun.com also did well in terms of month-on-month growth with visits up 29% to 18.1 million. Gazillions.com, despite showing strong year-on-year growth saw a huge month-on-month traffic fall in July. There were 52% fewer visits to the site in July than June.

Despite the growth of some smaller players, the website of cable broadcaster CNN continues to have by far the biggest audience share overall. Cnn.com was the most visited site in June with 411.7 million visits. This was followed by foxnews.com (274.2 million visits). and nytimes.com (261.4 million visits), which have in previous months jostled for second and third places. The sites of two British publishers also made it into the top 10 leading sites for volume of visits. BBC.co.uk and BBC.com racked up 108.2 million visits, while there were 97.5 million visits to dailymail.co.uk.

There were significantly fewer visits to the current top 50 sites in July this year compared to the same month in 2020. The leading 50 sites this month counted a combined 3.1 billion visits - a decrease of 19% compared to the combined 3.9 million visits to the leading 50 sites in July 2020. As was the case in June, only 10 of the top 50 sites saw year-on-year traffic increases. Most of these were niche sites catering to specialist audiences or sites with a strong conservative or right-wing bias.

June 2021

Recently launched celebrity and lifestyle site Gazillions.com was the fastest growing site in the US in June with right-leaning news sites also making strong showings.

Gazillions.com, which launched in late 2019, was the number one fastest growing site, according to data from web analytics company Similarweb. Visits were up over 5,000% (a more than 50-fold increase) from 692,361 in June 2020 to 37.1m in June 2021.

The rest of the top five sites for year-on-year growth were right-leaning sites that have seen considerable traffic increases in recent years.

The second fastest growing site, pro-Trump Newsmax, saw visits increase by 196% to 31.7m, while visits to next in place theepochtimes.com were up 186% to 22.5m. Alternative video news platform bitchute.com saw a 109% increase in audience to 20.9m, while visits to the fifth fastest growing site, thegatewaypundit.com, increased to 33.4m – up 61%.

At the foot of the list, mainstream sites featured heavily among the outlets with the biggest year-on-year falls in traffic. Forbes.com saw the biggest fall in traffic as visits decreased by 46% to 51.6m. Meanwhile, visits to The Atlantic’s site were down by 44% to 21m and visits to cbsnews.com were down by 43% to 26.3m.

Like-for-like comparisons will be impacted by the huge traffic to coronavirus-related content a year ago.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, Gazillions.com again came out on top. Visits to the site were 141% higher than in May, when there were 15.3m visits. Tech news site theverge.com also saw more traffic in June with visits up 18% compared with 27.5m visits the previous month.

Thegatewaypundit.com was the only other site that saw a more than 10% traffic increase compared with May.

Despite the growth of some smaller players, the website of cable broadcaster CNN continues to have by far the biggest audience share overall. CNN.com was the most visited site in June with 392.5m visits. This was followed by nytimes.com (257.5m visits) and foxnews.com (257.3m visits), which has significantly narrowed the gap on the site of the New York Times.

UK sites BBC.co.uk and BBC.com also made it into the top 10 with 108.1m visits, as did dailymail.co.uk with 92m visits in June.

While CNN.com regularly tops US lists for number of visits, its lead over its closest competitors is smaller than the BBC’s relative lead over competing news sources in the UK, according to our analysis.

Taken as whole, there were significantly fewer visits to the current top 50 sites this month compared with June 2020. June’s leading 50 sites counted a combined 3.1bn visits compared with 3.8bn visits in the same month last year (a decrease of 16%).

Only ten of the top 50 sites saw year-on-year traffic increases. These were gazillions.com, newsmax.com, theepochtimes.com, bitchute.com, thegatewaypundit.com, usnews.com, finance.yahoo.com, apnews.com, people.com and usmagazine.com.

All 50 sites combined, however, saw slightly more traffic in June (3.09m visits) compared with May (3.06m) – although the increase in visits is less than 1%.

April 2021

Right-wing news sites saw the biggest year-on-year growth in the US in April.

The Epoch Times was the single fastest growing site according to data from web analytics company Similarweb. Visits to another pro-Trump site, Newsmax, increased by 171% to 29.4m, while visits to right-wing video platform BitChute were up 150% to 19.3m.

Also in the top five for year-on-year growth was far-right site thegatewaypundit.com, whose founder and editor-in-chief, Jim Hoft, was permanently suspended from Twitter in February for sharing false news about the US election. The site saw visits increase by 41% to 25.5m.

Among the sites with the biggest year-on-year falls in traffic were several mainstream national news brands and business titles. Forbes.com saw the biggest fall in traffic as visits decreased by 54% to 53.2m. Meanwhile, visits to The Atlantic’s site were down by 52% to 21m and visits to newsweek.com were down by 50% to 22.7m. Like for like comparisons will be impacted by the huge traffic to coronavirus-related content a year ago.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, investigative tabloid RawStory came out on top. Visits to the site were 4% higher at 17.7m in April. The New York Post and the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Wire also saw small traffic increases of 1%.

The website of cable broadcaster CNN has by far the biggest audience share overall. Cnn.com was the most visited site in April with 410.9m visits. This was followed by nytimes.com (273.9m visits) and foxnews.com (244.1m visits). British sites BBC.co.uk and BBC.com also made it into the top 10 with 113.1m visits, as did dailymail.co.uk with 89.1m visits in April.

Taken as whole, there were significantly fewer visits to the current top 50 sites that month compared with April 2020. The current top 50 sites racked up a combined 3bn visits in April compared with 4.1bn visits in the same month last year. The only sites among the top 50 that saw year-on-year traffic increases were theepochtimes.com, newsmax.com, bitchute.com, usmagazine.com, thegatewaypundit.com, apnews.com, usnews.com, startribune.com and people.com.

Compared with last month, there were 7% fewer visits to the leading 50 sites combined in April (3.1bn compared with 3.3bn in March).

Note: Press Gazette will be updating this page on a monthly basis. See our previous coverage here:

Biggest news websites in the world archive data

• March 2021: Top 50 news websites in the world for March 2021: Times and Telegraph two fastest growers
• February 2021: Top 50 largest news websites in the world: Sputnik, Drudge and Fox see biggest traffic falls in February
• December 2020: Top 50 largest news websites in the world: Surge in traffic to Epoch Times and other right-wing sites
• November 2020: Top 50 largest news websites in the world revealed: Controversial pro-Trump sites were fastest-growing in US election month

Related Article: Top 50 biggest news websites in the world: September slump for ten biggest names

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Reuters and CNN have both announced on the same day that they will introduce a metered paywall on their websites.

Both news outlets are rolling out a digital subscription model that will see users able to read an as-yet undisclosed number of articles per month before being asked to subscribe.

CNN, currently the biggest news website in the US by visits and the third most popular in the world, said it will charge its most-regular users in the US $3.99 (£3) per month to access the full site.

The subscription will include exclusive features and documentaries, a daily curation of content, and fewer online adverts.

According to the outlet, some content will remain fully accessible including the homepage, breaking news live stories, standalone video pages and sponsored articles.

Meanwhile Reuters, currently the 30th biggest news website in the world, said full access globally to its website and newly relaunched app will cost $1 (75p) per week, or $4 per month.

Reuters president Paul Bascobert said: “This new subscription plan ensures Reuters can expand the reach of its award-winning coverage at an affordable price, while allowing us to further invest in our reporting and products for subscribers.”

Reuters will begin rolling out the digital subscription in Canada in early October before it goes to multiple countries in Europe and the US and, ultimately, all around the world.

Reuters promised that the pricing plan is “simple and transparent” with “no introductory offers or surprise price increases” and said users can “easily cancel”.

Reuters first publicly mooted the addition of an online paywall for its website in 2021 but the idea was ditched due to a dispute with financial data provider Refinitiv, a former Thomson Reuters division acquired by LSEG in 2021, over whether introducing subscriptions would breach their news supply agreement.

Reuters then raised the idea again in January 2023 after agreeing with LSEG a “path forward for Reuters to launch consumer-facing subscription products supporting both parties’ engagement with global professionals”.

Reuters owner Thomson Reuters said in August it expected to grow revenues by about 7% in 2024. The Reuters News division saw revenues grow by 13% in the first six months of the year to $415m. In Q2 its growth was put down to “growth in the agency business and by a contractual price increase from our news agreement with the data and analytics business of LSEG”.

Meanwhile at CNN revenues are challenged by its reliance on linear TV, in particular carriage fees from the cable industry.

Chief executive Mark Thompson, who joined last year and previously led the launch of the successful digital subscriptions strategy at The New York Times, said this summer that he intended to “future-proof” CNN, including by building a digital subscriptions business bringing in more than a billion dollars in revenue.

Alex MacCallum, CNN’s executive vice president of digital products and services, told staff in a memo on Tuesday that the initial offering will be expanded with “new products and businesses” to come.

“Over time, we will invest in ways to better meet our users’ needs and expand our aperture to engage and serve new audiences,” she said.

CNN’s previous attempt at a subscription-based business, its subscription service CNN+, closed after one month in April 2022. It was reported to have reached 150,000 paying subscribers.

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Press Gazette has ranked the biggest UK and US news publishers on Instagram with four achieving follower-counts above ten million.

We looked at the news publishers from our top 50 UK and US website rankings to compile our new research.

Two publishers – BBC News (27.8 million) and CNN (20 million) – are above the 20 million mark. When Press Gazette last ranked publisher Instagram accounts (in June 2023) BBC News had 7.4m followers on the platform and CNN 4.2m.

The top two on Instagram are followed by the New York Times (18.2 million) and People (13.6 million).

In comparison, only one news publisher (Daily Mail) from the two top 50 lists has topped ten million on Tiktok, the newer platform.

Ladbible does not feature in the latest ranking because it has it has fallen out of the list of the top 50 news websites in the UK. It currently has 14.1 million followers to its biggest Instagram account. Cosmopolitan, The Daily Wire, The Verge, NME, Epoch Times and Gateway Pundit similarly have fallen out of our top 50s so do not eapp

Excluding the impact of Ladbible’s removal, the top seven remain the same – but The Guardian (5.8 million followers) in eighth place has overtaken Buzzfeed and Unilad (both 5.7 million).

The fastest-growing Instagram account over a two-year period was the New York Post, increasing by 74.7% since 2022 to 1.2 million.

It was followed by Healthline Media (up 60% since 2022 to 1.3 million) and UK tabloid the Mirror (up 57% to 441,000).

Four news publishers on our list saw their Instagram followings decline since June 2023: Buzzfeed (down 7%), sister publication Huffpost (3% to 3.2 million), Unilad (down 2%) and The Daily Beast (down 2% to 452,000).

Since June 2023 only, the Mirror was the fastest-growing (up 45%) followed by ITV News (up 34% to 512,000) and the New York Post (up 32%).

But the follower count for BBC News increased the most in absolute terms (2.1 million) since last year - almost double the next largest growth seen by Fox News (up 1.2 million to 9.4 million).

Four added at least one million followers to their counts - also including the New York Times and People.

The percentage of people saying they use Instagram for news has risen from 2% in 2014 to 15% this year in 12 key markets surveyed by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (UK, US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Ireland.

It remains behind Facebook, Youtube and Whatsapp in importance but has overtaken Twitter/X and is still ahead of Tiktok and Snapchat.

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Five of the biggest news publishers in the UK and US have increased their core Tiktok followings by more than two million people in just over 18 months.

Press Gazette has updated our ranking of the biggest and fastest-growing news publisher Tiktok accounts, having last done so in January 2023.

The analysis features the 70 news publishers from Press Gazette’s most recent lists of the 50 biggest UK and US news websites that were found on Tiktok. 

Nineteen of the publishers are not included in the growth comparisons as they were not included in our previous analysis – with some of those likely to have been more recent sign-ups to Tiktok. 

The rankings look at each publisher’s main account only but it should be acknowledged that some news outlets create separate accounts for different verticals.

Reuters and The New York Times saw by far and away the biggest percentage increase in their Tiktok following during the period, but this is due to their small followings at the start of 2023.

Among those with over 100,000 followers at the time of our last update, the 371% growth seen by BBC News was the largest.

CNN (238%), GB News (221%), Yahoo News (218%), CNBC (205%) and The Independent (204%) were the other larger accounts to more than triple their follower count.

There was also some impressive growth for local news sites such as the Liverpool Echo (204%) and the Manchester Evening News (193%), though Newcastle’s Chronicle Live (464%) remains small (6,200 followers) despite that growth.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Washington Post (13%) and The Telegraph (14%) took the least advantage of TikTok’s growth.

In terms of absolute growth, there was no matching the Daily Mail, which added 5.6 million new followers over the period. This was more than two million more than any other news publisher in our analysis.

Insider, a section of Business Insider, was a distant second place, adding a still impressive 3.5 million new followers in the period.

CNN (3.1 million), Sky News (2.9 million) and BBC News (2.9 million) also added more than two million followers each since the start of 2023.

The New York Times added almost 750,000 followers from a starting point of under 5,000, while Reuters added over 175,000 from a base of less than 1,000.

Who are the biggest news publishers on Tiktok in the UK and US?

The Daily Mail, which was in third place behind ABC News in January 2023, is now leading the way at the top with nearly ten million followers for its main account on the platform at the time of writing. (Between our data collection and time of publication, it has now surpassed ten million.)

One of its smaller accounts, Daily Mail UK, which has 980,800 followers, would still place comfortably in the top half of the outlets considered. It celebrated surpassing ten million across all its accounts, which also include a global news account and others dedicated to crime, sport, royals, showbiz, the US and Australia, in January this year.

It does have a smaller Tiktok following than Ladbible (13.8 million followers on its main account), but although the younger brand was top of the ranking in 2023 it was not included in our latest update as it is not currently ranked in the top 50 news websites in the UK.

Of the 70 newsbrands covered in this analysis, 21 were followed by more than a million people. This was more than the number (19) who had followings below 100,000.

This increased reach comes off the back of further growth for TikTok, which is now used for news by 8% of people in 12 key markets including the UK and US according to the 2024 Reuters Institute Digital News Report - up from 1% in 2020.

Across all countries surveyed where Tiktok operates, it is now used for news by 13% of people - overtaking X/Twitter (10%) for the first time - and 23% of 18 to 24-year-olds, the report found.

However 27% of Tiktok users said they struggle to detect trustworthy news on the site, the highest of all social media platforms covered. And only 34% of Tiktok users said they pay attention to journalists or news media, preferring online influencers and personalities. By contrast, on X 53% of users say they pay attention to journalists or news media.

Note: This article was updated after publication to add Channel 4 News, which we discovered had been wrongly missed off our list of the UK's top 50 publishers and therefore met the criteria for inclusion on this ranking.

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A little over a year on from launch, millions of people have signed up for updates from publishers via Whatsapp Channels.

Press Gazette has found publishers account for 74 of the top 150 Whatsapp Channels by follower count, with The New York Times leading the way with more than 12 million subscribers.

But away from the most-followed newsbrands, the distribution format appears to be showing promise for publishers looking to build smaller, engaged readerships around specific subjects — especially for sport.

What are Whatsapp Channels?

Launched in June 2023, Whatsapp Channels are a one-way content distribution system built into the main Whatsapp app.

Unlike Whatsapp Communities, which can have a maximum of 2,000 members, Whatsapp Channels can be followed by an unlimited number of people. It is not possible for anyone but the Whatsapp Channel owner to post, making it effectively a broadcast-style distribution mechanism.

Significantly, Channels are simply presented as a feed showing the most recent content and allowing users to scroll up to find older posts — meaning content delivery is not mediated by an algorithm.

Channels are centrally discoverable in Whatsapp, which features a leaderboard of the most-followed Channels and allows users to search for them by topic and name. Previously only available to Meta partners, now anyone can create a Channel.

One drawback of the medium for publishers is that, unlike Communities, Whatsapp Channels do not automatically send notifications when new content is posted — users need to manually turn notifications on for each Channel to which they subscribe.

Another is a lack of direct monetisation opportunities: most publishers using the platform at present simply drive traffic to their sites or use Whatsapp to build engagement and community.

[Read more: Whatsapp for publishers – How Reach is driving millions of page views via messaging app]

Although followers of a Channel may not post into it, they can react to posts using an emoji, in the same way that is possible in chats with friends.

Users usually respond with the Whatsapp default emoji options of hearts, thumbs up or a “crying laughing” face — although since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, Palestinian and Israeli flags frequently appear underneath content of no direct relevance to Gaza.

Who are the top news publishers on Whatsapp Channels?

The Updates section of Whatsapp allows users to access a leaderboard of the top 150 channels on the app. The leaderboard appears to be global, as several of the top channels communicate in languages other than English.

The top ten channels are mostly run by football clubs, with appearances from brands or personalities like Netflix and Shakira. Further down the list, however, news publishers are common.

Despite Whatsapp's relative unpopularity in the US, as of late June the seven most-followed news publisher Whatsapp Channels were all American: The New York Times (12.2 million), CNN (9.6 million), the New York Post (9.1 million), The Wall Street Journal (5.2 million), Newsweek (4.4 million), National Geographic (4.3 million) and The Washington Post (4.3 million). The New York Times was the only news outlet to feature among the top ten channels overall.

The top non-American publisher is the Daily Mail — but, notably, not for its all-purpose Daily Mail account, which has 580,000 followers. Instead, the eighth most-followed news account on the platform is named "Daily Mail | Kardashians News", which has 2.7 million followers.

The success of the Mail's Kardashian Channel speaks to a broader trend on Whatsapp Channels that sees Channels with narrow focuses receive the most engagement.

Posts by The New York Times, for example, usually receive a few hundred reactions each, only occasionally breaking above 300. The Mail's Kardashian Channel, in contrast, often breaches 500 reactions, despite having a quarter as many subscribers.

The most popular topic focus is sport: 30 of the 74 publishers on the list above cover either sports generally or one sport, team, or sporting professional specifically. One football-specific publisher, 90min, has 11 channels in the top 150.

Other highly-engaged topics include culture (Vanity Fair and British Vogue), cooking (Tasty) and internet culture (Buzzfeed, Know Your Meme).

One of the most highly-engaged Channels Press Gazette found was The Sun's Christiano Ronaldo Channel. Posts on the Channel, which has 739,000 followers, rarely receive fewer than 2,000 reactions.

In part this is because of a different content strategy. The New York Times exclusively uses its channel to promote articles, which are typically linked to alongside a story excerpt. In contrast, posts to The Sun's Ronaldo Channel usually do not link to an article: instead, quotes, images and copy from the website are repurposed for consumption on Whatsapp directly.

Phil Harman, The Sun's head of audience, told Press Gazette: “We’ve sort of treated Whatsapp as we have with newsletters, and pushed to reach those direct audiences.”

He said the publisher had early on decided that its approach would be to go "very niche" on Channels.

"That paid off with huge followings," Harman said. "They grew very fast in the first few months, and many are still growing now, and we know readers really like them...

“We can see really high levels of engagement across those niche interest areas, and that’s really important. Traffic’s decent, but we know that it can often be quite seasonal — club accounts will fly during the transfer season and when there’s lots of live football.”

Whatsapp Channels provide 'direct relationship' in volatile sector

Harman added: "It’s so important to have that direct relationship with our readers when other referrers are so volatile."

Amid the well-documented decline in referral traffic from Whatsapp sister platform Facebook and unpredictability at search giant Google, the simplicity of Whatsapp Channels' chronologically-ordered feed appeals to some publishers.

Speaking at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Copenhagen in May, Reach plc engagement director Dan Russell said Channels had allowed the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Manchester Evening News publisher to take "control" of its distribution.

“We’re sending the content how we want to send it, how we want it to look, with what headline, with what picture. We don’t have to mess around with key words… it is entirely up to us.”

Reach has embraced both Whatsapp Channels and Communities, and told Press Gazette in October that its 100,000 subscribers across 80 Communities were delivering millions of page views per month.

Speaking in May once its Channels had had more time to bed in, Russell told the World News Media Congress that its Channels were less impactful for traffic than Communities: "On Whatsapp Channels we have two million members… however currently we’re only getting about a million page views from those people" per month, he said. In contrast almost every Community user reads at least one thing a month, he said.

Posts in Whatsapp Communities appear in a user's feed of chats, alongside messages from friends, whereas channels need to be sought out by the user in a different part of the app.

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The definition and logic of impartiality was debated by CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour and CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness at the 2024 Sir Harry Summit.

Following on from a comment Amanpour had made about Trump supporters being pulled into dangerous echo chambers, Turness asked her how to engage with a Trump-voting audience without isolating oneself.

Turness said: “If we corner ourselves, those audiences won’t come to us, they won’t receive our impartiality or our pursuit of truth.”

Amanpour responded: “I have a problem with the word impartial because I don’t really know what it means, is it neutral or objective?”

Turness defined impartiality as: “Fairness and respect for audiences.”

But Amanpour explained: “What if World War Two was about to explode – would we say we’re impartial to the Nazis’ desire to overrun the world?

“No, we are not impartial, and we should not be, we should be objective and truthful.”

Amanpour said earlier: “I’ve never subscribed to this idea that truth is subjective, because it’s empirical, evidentiary, and factual.”

On the other hand, Turness argued that due to subscription culture and the power of algorithms, people create their own echo chambers. When they “come up for air”, she argued, they meet impartial news and feel that it is an attack on their values.

They were joined by founder of Bellingcat Eliot Higgins and co-founder of Newsguard Steven Brill. The panel discussion entitled ‘How Do We Know What’s True?’ was moderated by Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

Higgins expanded on the echo chamber debate: “It’s not just about what the media can do, but what we can do as a society…

“We must look at the state of education in the UK around media literacy.

“We need to go a lot further, we need to show them how to find the truth and most importantly, why that truth matters.”

Brill mentioned how trustworthy media organisations have had their logos “hijacked” by those spreading disinformation, with Tiktok videos spreading fake news using BBC logos.

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Emily Maitlis has said journalists are “kidding” themselves if they believe they’re “leading the conversation” around Donald Trump.

Maitlis, a former Newsnight and BBC Americast presenter who now co-hosts Global’s The News Agents podcast and its weekly US version, told an audience in London on Wednesday that she did not think the media had “learned the lessons of 2016”.

She was speaking on a panel at the Sir Harry Evans Summit titled “The Media And Trump 2.0”, which saw prominent journalists and media executives wrangling over how the news industry should cover the former president who is again the Republican candidate.

Trump, who leads incumbent president Joe Biden in some polls ahead of November’s election, has insisted since late 2020 that the last election was rigged against him despite consistent findings by courts and election officials that this was not the case.

The former president’s frequent use of falsehoods has raised complications for journalists, who have struggled over how they should cover him without amplifying inaccurate claims or opening themselves to accusations of bias.

Speaking about this on Wednesday, Maitlis referred to her 2022 Edinburgh Television Festival MacTaggart Lecture, commenting: “I said the rules have changed, the politicians have changed, the actors have changed and the journalists need to get with it — you need to understand what’s going on.

“And I actually thought, two years later, we’d be in a different place, and I don’t think we are.”

She said the problem for journalists is that “we’re dealing with somebody who can raise millions off a mugshot on a mug. So we’re kidding ourselves if we think we as broadcasters are leading the conversation”.

Maitlis linked this point to the ability of public figures to communicate directly with their audiences through social media: “If you go and talk to Elon Musk, if you do an interview with Elon Musk, it doesn’t matter how much heavy TV equipment you’ve got — they’re recording it, they will put out their clips before you get yours on air. And their clips will show Elon Musk in the light that he wants to be seen. Same with Trump.”

Kara Swisher: NYT editor Joe Kahn ‘is living in another era’

Earlier this month New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn publicly waded into the debate around covering Trump, telling Semafor that “​​it is not the job of the news media to prevent” his re-election and asking whether the title’s critics wanted it to become “Xinhua News Agency or Pravda and put out a stream of stuff that’s very, very favourable to [Biden] and only write negative stories about the other side”.

[Read more: How New York Times plans to cover Donald Trump’s third presidential campaign]

The comments reportedly caused annoyance among NYT staffers and they also irritated Maitlis’ co-panellist at the event, former New York Times columnist Kara Swisher, who said: “Joe is living in another era. When I read that, I’m like: ‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Joe.’

“A lot of people at The New York Times, even though they defended him, said [the same thing] to me…

“What are you talking about? Why do you have to go to Chinese news agency? Why can’t you just point out the problems? Of course he had to make it either you’re very fair or you’re the Chinese news agency. I was like: there’s something in between those two things!”

Swisher was not in complete disagreement with Kahn, who had emphasised that Trump cannot be downplayed in coverage because he has a good shot at winning the presidency.

She told the audience: “One of the things that drives me crazy is when I hear a lot of: ‘Why are you platforming that person? Why are you doing this?’ I mean, you get that from a lot of people, right?

“Guess what? He’s running for president and he could win and he’s ahead. And so you can’t ignore it and get on a high horse without engaging with it… It is the new normal, whether you like it or not. And so you have to figure out ways, as journalists, to deal with it.”

Emily Maitlis, Kara Swisher, Jeff Zucker and Jorge Ramos on how they think the media should cover Trump

Some of the journalists on stage argued the way to “deal with it” is to consistently contradict false claims made by Trump and emphasise that he attempted to undermine an election result.

Jorge Ramos, a Univision anchor who was ejected from a Trump press conference in 2015, said: “We have to confront him. That’s the way to deal with him — to confront him every single time…

“You cannot remain neutral. At the end it’s a matter of credibility, of trust. And the only way people are going to trust us — we cannot treat him as if he were a normal candidate.

“I think the most important responsibility that we have is to challenge those who are in power. There’s a beautiful word in Spanish — contrapoder, ‘against-power’. If you’re always contrapoder, on the other side of power, you’ll be fine.”

Maitlis, who attempted this kind of fact-checking approach with pro-Trump congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in March before being told to “fuck off” by the lawmaker, acknowledged the efficacy of her questioning was undercut by the fact Taylor Greene had “loved” the clip.

But she added: “I sometimes wonder whether you couldn’t justify mentioning January the 6th [when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol] every time you talk about Donald Trump’s campaign.

“Because if you don’t, you’re ignoring the fact that he tried to ignore the public vote, the public’s will, for an election. How on Earth can you talk about a campaign to be president when he could do it again? You know — we talk about what happens if Donald Trump wins, what happens if Donald Trump loses? We’ll go through the whole thing again!”

Jeff Zucker, the attempted Telegraph buyer and former CNN president who led the network during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, said that we now “have a better sense of who [Trump] is and what he’s trying to do.

“I agree with Jorge — I don’t think it’s necessary to cover the motorcade from Trump Tower to the courthouse [for Trump’s trials] and things like that. I don’t think we have to take every one of those press conferences live. Those are the mistakes that I made [in previous elections]. I own them.

“That is not why he was elected president of the United States, but I don’t think we should be repeating things like that this time.”

However, he emphasised Trump “is the candidate for president again. He could very well win. I think what he says, what he does, is news — but I also don’t think that there’s necessarily two sides to every story… It’s okay not to be neutral as long as you know the objective truth.”

Swisher, on the other hand, said Trump is “a master troll”.

Referring to the 2015 clip of Ramos attempting to question Trump before he was ejected, she said: “You have to understand how it’s being consumed by the consumer on the end, and it is not that [clip]…

“He’s doing that for the cutting of it, to put it out for fundraising and everything else. He doesn’t care about progressives, so sometimes we become willing idiots to what he’s doing, because we’re characters in his strange little demented play…

“That is not what people are seeing. They’re seeing clips, they’re seeing it mixed up, they’re seeing it a different way. People are taking the news and then making the news [themselves], and that’s what’s difficult.”

Swisher also laid out her “dream of interviewing” Trump, saying: “I would do it at Mar-a-Lago, in the lobby, on a velvet couch… so he feels safe. And then I will get him… Everybody would watch the hell out of it.”

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Long-serving Vice News correspondent Isobel Yeung is joining CNN as an international correspondent based in the network’s London bureau.

CNN’s senior vice president for international newsgathering Deborah Rayner said: “Isobel has a truly exceptional track record of impactful, enterprise reporting and filmmaking. It is extremely rare to find a multi-skilled journalist with such a body of experience and award-winning work across so many countries. Hers is the kind of journalism that has always been at the core of what CNN is about.”

Yeung spent ten years at Vice News and her recent work has included going undercover in Mexico to infiltrate a network of Chinese gangsters laundering drug proceeds for the cartels and travelling to Iran to cover the women-led uprising a year after Mahsa Amini’s death. She has also travelled to a Russian summer camp where Ukrainian children had been illegally sent and reported from the occupied West Bank as part of an investigation for the BBC into the conduct of Israel’s security forces. 

Yeung’s archive of work for Vice.com can no longer be reached after the publisher switched off its website to become a social-only brand.

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