More than half (29) of the 50 biggest news websites in the US saw a month-on-month decline. Substack, now the fourteenth biggest news site in the US, saw the biggest year-on-year boost in visits, up by almost half (42%) to 72.7 million visits in August compared to the same period in 2024. Just five of the top 50 US websites saw year-on-year traffic growth in August 2025, according to the latest data from Similarweb. In August, just five of the top 50 sites had year-on-year growth but in September 18 had an increase in visits compared to a year earlier. Among the biggest month-on-month web traffic declines were also the New York Post (down 15% to 97.7 million visits), followed by Newsweek (67.8 million) and CNN (297.1 million), both down 14%. Just one site among the top ten saw month-on-month growth, with Yahoo Finance (in fourth place) increasing its traffic 10% on September to 145.7 million visits.
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The publication, likely spurred by the city’s historic wildfires, grew its web visits nearly 120% to 42.3 million in January, but in February these returned to 20.8 million – a 51% month-on month fall. The drops mirror widespread gains in February, when only nine top sites saw traffic losses and 21 posted gains of 10% or greater. Despite its Lyxcasinon monthly gain The Cooldown was the second-largest faller year-on-year among the top 50, losing 24% of its traffic compared to March last year. Google News, The New York Times and Yahoo Finance all saw a 9% month-on-month rise in visits, while People, Fox News and USA Today rose 5%.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Los Angeles Times more than doubled its web traffic month-on-month in January as its home city battled historic wildfires.
- Newsweek (up 20.1%), The Atlantic (26.6 million, up 16.2% month-on-month), The Washington Post (109.7 million, up 8.7%) and Substack (53.9 million, up 7.9%) were similarly among the fastest growers.
- Only 15 out of the top 50 news websites in the US grew traffic year on year in May, according to the latest data from Similarweb.
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. Celebrity newsbrand People was the fastest-growing news website in the US in March according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking. 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. 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.
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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. 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. 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. The contraction is particularly pronounced among the top ten US news sites by traffic, where eight publishers saw visits drop compared to July. 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. 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.
