Right Wing Election Year Traffic Erosion Continues; MSM Falters Too
Unique Visitors to Drudge Report Drop 81% Since Feb. 2020
March 27, 2024, New York, NY –In its second election year traffic report, TheRighting found that the vast majority of right wing news websites it monitored experienced significant audience erosion. Eighty-six percent experienced declines of 44% or more. TheRighting’s analysis looked at February 2024 unique visitors and compared it to February 2020 traffic. Only one right wing news website posted a year-over-year (YOY) traffic increase in TheRighting’s top 15 election year comparison.
TheRighting also released today its analysis of February 2024 vs February 2023 mobile and desktop traffic. The YOY comparison showed that the audiences decreased to most right wing websites during the 12-month period.
Among the highlights of TheRighting’s February 2024 findings:
FEBRUARY 2024 VS FEBRUARY 2020: THE ELECTION YEAR COMPARISON
Traffic fell more than 80% for five news websites TheRighting monitored in this period: Twitchy (-93%), The Federalist (-91%), Washington Times (-89%), Western Journal (-84%) and the Drudge Report (-81%). This marks the first time Drudge has been included in TheRighting’s monthly traffic chart. In February 2024, the influential and long-running news aggregator attracted just 339,000 unique visitors, according to Comscore data, resulting in an 81% decline. Drudge generated 1,787,000 unique visitors in February 2020.
For the second month in a row, of all the news websites that TheRighting surveyed in its February election year comparison, only Newsmax posted a rise in unique visitors from 2020 to 2024 (+37%).
Mainstream outlets and a random sampling of left-leaning news websites also saw traffic sag during this period, but not as dramatically. The new sites TheRighting surveyed in the February election year comparison include Daily Kos (-4%), Slate (-42%), and The Daily Beast (-45%). Audiences dipped at the three mainstream news sites TheRighting regularly follows: CNN (-19%), The NY Times (-22%) and The Washington Post (-43%).
“Right wing websites appear more susceptible to steeper election year audience erosion than mainstream or left-leaning outlets,” said Howard Polskin, President and Founder, TheRighting. “But news sites on both sides of the aisle are feeling the effects of primary battles devoid of drama, which impacts traffic. Compare that to February 2020 when we had the contested New Hampshire primary, the contested Iowa caucuses, and the growing menace of a deadly new virus.
“Our next traffic report, for the March 2024 period, will almost certainly look even grimmer because it will be compared to March 2020 when the alarming news of the global pandemic dominated headlines and drove huge numbers of visitors to news websites across the political spectrum.”
FEBRUARY 2024 VS FEBRUARY 2023
Traffic tanked to most right wing websites for the sixth straight month. Only five right wing news websites posted gains in YOY unique visitors. For the third straight month, Newsmax registered an increase in unique visitors (+3%).
“The traffic declines are deeper than I anticipated” said Howard Polskin. “Major news events dominated February 2024 including explosive courtroom testimony from Fani Willis, a divisive report from Special Counsel Robert Hur about President Biden, Trump’s nine-figure civil fine and Tucker Carlson’s controversial interview with Vladimir Putin. These events should have driven more eyeballs to right wing news outlets.”
YOY February 2024 traffic fell slightly at the three mainstream news websites that TheRighting follows on a monthly basis. The NY Times had the smallest decreases (-1%), followed by The Washington Post (-4%) and CNN (-6%).
YOY Winners and Losers Among Top 20 Right Wing News Websites for Feb. 2024
(by unique visitor percentage increase/decrease from year ago)
Winners
· Townhall (+202%)
· Infowars (+24%
· Daily Signal (+18%)
Losers
· Western Journal (-68%)
· Twitchy (-67%)
· The Gateway Pundit (-62%)
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, February 2024, U.S.
About TheRighting
Each month, TheRighting examines Comscore data on dozens of prominent right wing websites that post original content. TheRighting ranks the top right wing websites on the basis of unique visitors and also provides data on whether unique visitors have increased or decreased year-over-year. For the 2024 election year, TheRighting has expanded its research to include monthly comparisons between 2020 and 2024 as well as several more news outlets that mostly lean left.
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