More people visited the Washington Post’s website than The New York Times’ in October, marking a significant milestone in the battle for old guard supremacy in online media.
Last month, the Washington Post raked in 66.9 million multi-platform unique visitors narrowly edging out the New York Times, which recorded 65.8 million uniques, according to comScore. It’s the Post’s highest trafficked month since at least Oct. 2014, representing a 59 percent increase in less than a year.
For the Times, traffic dipped slightly from September (66.5 million) with traffic largely stagnating over the past two years. Still, it was the Times’ second-highest month buoyed by viral pieces Miranda July’s interview with Rihanna and the lengthy, moving feature “The Lonely Death of George Bell.”
The New York Times, according to a Politico New York piece from August, has been worried about the Post’s growing digital dominance, propelled by its ever growing selection of viral-focused blogs and a faster loading website. In response, the Times is building out its own “digital rewrite team” called the Express in an effort to capture some viral traffic.
Just two months ago, Politico asked “could the Post top the Times in unique visitors by this time next year?” The answer is yes (and much sooner!), but now the question is, will it last?
More in Media
In Graphic Detail: How AI search is changing publisher visibility
AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Mode are driving more search activity. Some publishers are gaining visibility — but not traffic.
AI royalties for small and midsize publishers: collective licensing’s next big play
Don’t credit OpenAI’s ChatGPT, credit corporate LLMs – enterprise RAG is what’s creating royalty revenue for publishers.
The Economist licenses its content to enterprise clients’ private LLMs
The Economist is among those to start licensing its content this way – having opened its API to corporate clients with their own data ring-fenced LLMs in August.