7 seats left:

Join us Dec. 1-3 in New Orleans for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit

SECURE YOUR SEAT

Washington Post tops New York Times online for first time ever

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.

traffic2

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

Forbes launches dynamic AI paywall as it ramps up post-search commercial diversification plans

For the latest Inside the publisher C-Suite series, Digiday spoke to Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips on its AI-era playbook, starting with its AI-powered dynamic paywall to new creator-led commercial opportunities.

Creators embrace Beehiiv’s push beyond newsletters

Creators are embracing Beehiiv’s new website, product and analytics tools to help them grow beyond the competitive newsletter space.

Illustration of a performer balancing money weights on a tightrope, symbolizing how brand safety tools help marketers maintain performance and control.

Media Briefing: Publishers turn to paid audience acquisition tactics to tackle traffic losses

Publishers facing declining organic traffic are buying audiences through paid ads and traffic arbitrage, and using AI tools to do it.