Year-Over-Year Unique Visitors to Washington Examiner Rise 87% as Site Now Ranks at Second-Most-Trafficked US Conservative Website
April 24, 2019, New York, NY – The Washington Examiner posted its third consecutive month of strong gains in year-over-year (YOY) unique visitors, according to TheRighting’s exclusive analysis of traffic to conservative websites using Comscore data. The Examiner’s strong performance helped it become March’s second-most-trafficked US conservative website for the first since TheRighting began tracking the size of right-wing online audiences.
The Examiner drew 9,555,000 uniques in March 2019, an 87% increase compared to March 2018 when it attracted only 5,096,000 uniques. The Examiner registered a 17% YOY increase in February and a 30% rise in January.
Foxnews.com remained the undisputed leading conservative website as YOY uniques to Foxnews.com ballooned 20% in March, its fifth consecutive month of traffic gains. Foxnews.com attracted 102,809,000 uniques, 17.4 million more than March 2018.
“Attorney General William Barr’s summation of the Mueller report March 24 undoubtedly helped drive traffic to Foxnews.com and other leading conservative websites,” said Howard Polskin, President and Chief Curator, TheRighting. “Conservative audiences were looking for news and perspective with a strong right-wing flavor about the Barr summation and they found it in spades from a variety of sources.”
The New York Times brand also appeared to have benefited from the Barr summation as YOY uniques rose 17%. CNN experienced a slight increase (+0.2%) and The Washington Post (-4%) experienced a slight dip in YOY March uniques.
In March, Breitbart extended its streak of YOY unique losses to seven months in a row as traffic dropped 18% compared to March 2018.
Leaders and Laggards Among Top 20 Conservative Websites for March 2019
(by unique visitor percentage increase/decrease from year ago)
Leaders:
· Western Journal (+95%)
· Washington Examiner (+87%)
· Washington Times (+82%)
Laggards:
· Newsmax (-24%)
· PJ Media (-19%)
· Breitbart and The Federalist (-18%)
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. (See March 2019 top 20 right-wing websites here.)
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, March 2019, U.S.
