Traffic to the Washington Times Surges Past

the Washington Examiner for the First Time Since June 2018

 May 27, 2020, New York, NY – For the first time in nearly two years, traffic to the Washington Times exceeded that of its rival the Washington Examiner, which has been one of the fastest-growing conservative news websites.  Year-over-year (YOY) Times traffic for April 2020 skyrocketed 229%, as the site attracted 20,705,000 unique visitors, easily making it the second-most trafficked right-leaning website for the month. 

 TheRighting’s exclusive analysis of April 2020 mobile and desktop traffic based on Comscore data showed while the Examiner’s YOY audience grew by 62% in April 2020, it was almost six million unique visitors behind the Times, dropping it to third place. However, the Examiner still recorded its 16th consecutive month of YOY increases in unique visitors. 

 Overall, extensive coverage of the coronavirus pandemic helped all conservative websites in TheRighting’s top 20 right-wing websites post positive gains, with 45% of them experiencing triple-digit gains.

 CNS had the largest YOY percentage gain with a 609% increase as unique visitors rose from 636,000 in April 2019 to 4,510,000 in April 2020.  Foxnews.com led all conservative websites drawing 117,211,000 unique visitors for the month. 

 “April 2020 was a remarkable month for conservative websites,” said Howard Polskin, President and Chief Curator, TheRighting.  “Since TheRighting began tracking traffic to right-wing websites in September 2018, this marks the first time that all top 20 websites generated audience gains.  The public’s appetite for news and opinion about the pandemic remains extremely healthy. At some point coronavirus news fatigue will set in but it didn’t happen in April.”

 The three leading US mainstream news sources that TheRighting regularly follows every month experienced significant YOY audience growth.  Both the Washington Post and the New York Times Brand saw YOY unique visitors climb 35% in April 2020 compared to April 2019.  CNN.com attracted 33% million more YOY unique visitors in April 2020 versus April 2019. 

 Leaders Among Top 20 Conservative Websites for April 2020

(by unique visitor percentage increase from year ago)

·      CNS News (+609%)

·      PJ Media (607%)

·      WND (+438%)

 Each month, TheRighting examines Comscore data on dozens of prominent conservative websites that post original content.  TheRighting ranks the top 20 conservative websites on the basis of unique visitors and also provides data on whether unique visitors have increased or decreased year over year.  That information is posted on the Metrics section of TheRighting’s website.

 TheRighting also publishes an A-Z Guide to Right-Wing Media  on its website and updates it regularly.  The guide features descriptions about prominent right-wing media websites.

 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, April 2020, U.S.

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