Nielsen/NetRatings data on most popular news sites is out--in June 2005 Yahoo! News was the top news site with 24.9 mln visits, followed by MSNBC (23.8 mln) and CNN (21.4 mln).
The runners-up:
AOL News (17.4 mln), Gannett Newspapers (11.4 mln), New York Times (11.2 mln), Internet Broadcasting (10.9 mln), Knight Ridder Digital (9.9 mln), Tribune Newspapers (9.0 mln), USA Today (8.6 mln), Washington Post (8.5 mln), ABC News (7.7 mln), Google News (7.2 mln), Hearst Newspapers Digital (6.9 mln).
So, two cable nets made the cut. This is not distinguishing for them in a good way.
It will be, no doubt, celebrated by CNN and MSNBC, when it's actually a (further) indication that their ratings are in trouble and are going to remain there. It's very simple: if someone is looking at a cable news network's website, then they're probably not watching the actual network.
The geek population has known this for a long time:
"'The reader wants lots of sources and doesn't particularly care whether you point offsite or onsite,' blogging pioneer Dave Winer said. 'They just want the story.'
"And while news executives insist their brands will remain important as trustworthy destinations, some readers prefer to trust individual bloggers or friends who forward news items via e-mail.
"Nicco Mele, webmaster for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, said he rarely visits news sites directly anymore and instead trusts bloggers like Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, a Dean supporter. Pointing to Moulitsas at a recent conference, Mele remarked, 'I'll read what he thinks I should read.'"
Here's the rule: CNN's website can be the most extravagantly information-rich news resource in all of creation, but if the network sucks, no amount of pointing and clicking in cyberspace is going to make "Paula Zahn NOW" a winner on the tube, where it really counts.
