Audiences Continue to Abandon News Websites in June
TheRighting released its June 2024 election year traffic analysis of mobile and desktop traffic for right wing and mainstream news websites based on Comscore data.
Among the highlights of TheRighting’s June 2024 findings:
TRUTH SOCIAL SLUMPS ONCE AGAIN
The Donald Trump-controlled Truth Social platform recorded its third straight month of declining traffic. Truth Social attracted 2,112,000 unique visitors, down 38% compared to June 2023 when the site generated 3,407,000 unique visitors.
It was the platform’s second worst traffic performance since June 2022 when Truth Social had only 1,891,000 unique visitors. The site launched in February 2022 to 3,260,000 unique visitors.
“The diminishing audience levels for Truth Social suggest a rejection of the harsh rhetoric expressed by the ex-president and his political allies that is one of the hallmarks of the two-year-old platform,” said Howard Polskin, President, TheRighting. “If this softness persists, it might portend trouble for Mr. Trump at the ballot box in November.”
Here are the June unique visitors for the three conservative-friendly social media platforms TheRighting follows:
- Rumble (6,365,000 unique visitors; -43% vs year ago)
- Truth Social 2,112,000; -38% vs year ago)
- Gettr (134,000; -34% vs year ago)
JUNE 2024 VS JUNE 2020
Newsmax was the only news website of the 22 surveyed by TheRighting that grew its audience from June 2020 to June 2024. The site posted a 26% audience increase in that period, attracting 4,308,000 unique visitors in June 2024, compared to 3,322,000 in June 2020.
The Federalist (-95%), Breitbart (-92%) and Townhall (-92%) all registered the steepest declines in the four-year period of websites with measurable audiences.
Mainstream media outlets also faltered in June. The NY Times (-22%) and CNN (-32%) had the smallest decreases among the six sites examined between June 2020 and June 2024.
“The ongoing audience erosion in June 2024 was expected because June 2020 was dominated by big news events like the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd and the global health crisis triggered by the spread of Covid-19,” said Howard Polskin. “The remarkable political news that dominated events in July 2024 should provide a much needed boost to the traffic for news outlets on both sides of the aisle. However, if traffic continues to drop, it would signal intensifying challenges facing all news websites.”
JUNE 2024 VS JUNE 2023
Four right wing websites posted increases in unique visitors from June 2023 to June 2024: Washington Examiner, Washington Times, The Gateway Pundit and Hannity.com. Among the mainstream news websites TheRighting follows, only the NY Times generated an audience increase (+5%). CNN (-20%) and the Washington Post (-24%) suffered audience erosion during that same time period.
YOY Winners and Losers Among Top 20 Right Wing News Websites for June 2024
(by unique visitor percentage increase/decrease from year ago)
Winners
–The Washington Times (+81%)
–Hannity.com (+63%)
–The Gateway Pundit (+40%)
Losers
–RedState (-70%)
–Western Journal (-61%)
–Daily Wire (-57%)
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-defined list, including, but not limited to Foxnews.com, Breitbart.com, DailyCaller.com, WashingtonExaminer.com, WesternJournal.com, Washingtontimes.com, Total Digital Audience, June 2024, U.S.
