Breaking News, Politics, Entertainment & Opinion

The Daily Mail (down 7.5% month-on-month to 113 million), which was the ninth most popular news site in the US in both July and August, dropped in September to tenth. The contraction was sharpest at Yahoo Finance (down 11.3% month-on-month to 144.4 million visits) and third-placed Fox News (down 11.2% to 260.2 million). But for most publishers visits have nonetheless improved year-on-year, with three-fifths of the top 50 recording traffic increases of at least 10% compared with September 2023. Almost all the top 50 news sites in the US saw traffic fall in September, deepening a decline that began in August.

AI agents need ‘background checks’ like humans, says Cisco’s president

Far-right website Gateway Pundit, which entered the chart at 48th last month, has in turn fallen out of the top 50. The site has since rolled out its inaugural paywall, the effects from which will only become visible next month. In September the shallowest traffic falls were recorded at The New York Times (down 1.9% to 355 million) and Forbes (down 2.1% to 113 million). Major news events in the US in September included Hurricane Helene hitting North Carolina, a second failed assassination attempt against Trump, and the first TV debate between him and Kamala Harris. In August eight of the top ten publishers saw month-on-month decline, which marked a correction after an eventful July (in which the Paris Olympics kicked off, Joe Biden left the US presidential race and Donald Trump was shot).

AP report sheds light on forgotten ‘mini-Olympics’ in fascist Italy during World War II

NBC News, similarly, grew its traffic 112.5% compared with last year, while USA Today managed growth of 65.5%. The biggest fallers compared with December 2023 among the whole top 50 were UK tabloid The Sun (23 million, down 55%), The Los Angeles Times (19.4 million, down 33.2%) and Huffpost (43.6 million, down 21%). Among the nine websites to lose traffic month-on-month, five saw decreases of 2.1% or lower.

The biggest month-on-month decline was seen at NBC News, dropping 30% to 67.7 million visits. The New York Post (down 33% to 97.7 million visits) and USA Today (down 32% to 125.4 million) had the second and third biggest year-on-year declines within the top ten sites in October. In total 35 sites saw month-on-month decline, with Variety decreasing the most (down 22% to 17.4 million visits), followed by The Sun (down 16% to 21.9 million) and US News (down 14% to 19.6 million). Some 15 sites saw month-on-month growth, with Newsweek the most visited site to see a boost – up 21% to 82.3 million. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects.

• 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.
• 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.
• The Los Angeles Times more than doubled its web traffic month-on-month in January as its home city battled historic wildfires.

Among the top ten sites in the US, three were up compared to June 2024 (New York Times, People, BBC and Google News) and seven saw an increase compared to May. This is despite The Independent seeing the biggest year-on-year fall in traffic, down 56% to 16.4 million. In July, BBC saw a 15% month-on-month drop in views following the launch of a dynamic paywall for users in the US at the end of June. September was a busier news month, including the assassination of right-wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk. Syndication website MSN saw the biggest drop year on year among the top ten by more than a third (39.5% to 144 million visits). Athlon Sports followed Forbes in year-on-year traffic decline with a drop in visits of 48% to 290.3 million, along with AP News (down 46% to 78.5 million visits).

Kendall Toole shares what actually happened in that now-viral Peloton video 10 national parks that are Rokotustyöntekijät pelastavat kanoja Malawissa better in winter than summer Here’s why cases are rising among young people

The biggest month-on-month increase in June was at The Times of Israel, which saw its visits almost double to 23.7 million in the US (up 98%). The other newsbrands to report month-on-month growth were Newsbreak (up 6%), SFGate (4%), USA Today (3%), and LA Times and India Times (both 1%). Similarly six sites reported month-on-month growth for August, with this hugely increasing to 35 in September.

How do scientists forecast so much about the cause, effect, and scope of earthquakes… when they still don’t know when those quakes are going to happen? The largest snow crystal ever photographed, according to scientist Kenneth Libbrecht. The people of Gaza have faced the threat of hunger since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. The shortest month of the year is packed with highly anticipated new releases, including books from Michael Pollan, Tayari Jones and the late Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. The job market remained sluggish last month as U.S. employers added just XXX jobs.

The second-fastest annual growth was at climate site The Cooldown (25.5 million, up 562%) and the third-fastest was at Newsweek (172%), which was also the fastest-growing site among the top ten domains. Year-on-year, however, Athlon (athlonsports.com) saw the greatest growth in the top 50, drawing in 697% more visits in July 2024 than in July 2023. The company says the update has improved the accuracy of the data, particularly with regard to smaller websites. The biggest increases in traffic were at USA Today (34%), CNN (33%), Newsweek (21%), Fox News (20%) and The New York Times (15%).

After decades monitoring polar bears in Norway’s far north, researchers say the animals have proven incredibly adaptable, but there are no guarantees for the future. A report in JAMA found about 13% of young people use AI chatbots for mental health advice. Millions of Americans are turning to AI for emotional therapy. One California startup, Farm-ng, is tapping into the power of AI and robotics to perform a wide range of tasks, including seeding, weeding and harvesting. Actor James Van Der Beek, known for his roles in “Dawson’s Creek,” “Varsity Blues” and more, has died at the age of 48, according to his publicist and a post from his wife on social media. His wife posted about his death on Instagram on Wednesday.