The publication, likely spurred by the city’s historic wildfires, grew its web visits nearly 120% to 42.3 million in January, but in February these returned to 20.8 million – a 51% month-on month fall. The drops mirror widespread gains in February, when only nine top sites saw traffic losses and 21 posted gains of 10% or greater. Despite its monthly gain The Cooldown was the second-largest faller year-on-year among the top 50, losing 24% of its traffic compared to March last year. Google News, The New York Times and Yahoo Finance all saw a 9% month-on-month rise in visits, while People, Fox News and USA Today rose 5%.

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It was followed by financial news and advice site Moneywise (27.6 million visits, up 334% year-on-year). Visits to the news magazine’s website were up 198% compared to May 2023 to 95.5 million but it was beaten by two specialist newsbrands. Celebrity-focused newsbrand People.com was the fastest-growing news website in the US in May, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking. Celebrity-focused People.com saw the most year-on-year growth in the top ten, growing visits 37% to 142.1 million. All the top-ten sites by total visits grew year-on-year in July, seven of them by double-digit percentages.

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).

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Economists had forecast a monthly payroll gain of 75,000, according to polling from financial data company FactSet. Diagnoses in people younger than 55 have nearly doubled since 1995. Email to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog The largest site in the US remained The New York Times (482.7 million visits), followed by CNN (398.8 million) and Fox News (270.2 million). The Independent’s chief executive Christian Broughton told Press Gazette last year that US expansion, along with e-commerce, Independent TV, reader revenues and AI, are the main drivers of growth for the publisher. Ranked 42nd in this month’s top 50, the site was launched by founder and CEO of the sports media outlet Sa fungerar Neteller Bleacher Report Dave Finocchio and Anna Robertson, an ABC and Yahoo News executive, and purports to be the “first mainstream climate brand” in the US.

Business Insider (56.8 million) and Huffpost (43.7 million) each received 25% less traffic this January than January last year. CNN (399.1 million, up 12%) and USA Today (158.6 million, up 10.4%) increased their visits by double-digit percentage points, while the New York Post (127.9 million, down 10%) the only top-ten site to lose traffic. The paper has reportedly suffered subscription cancellations in recent months after proprietor Patrick Soon-Shiong intervened to block its editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris in the US presidential election. The Los Angeles Times more than doubled its web traffic month-on-month in January as its home city battled historic wildfires. The other six top-ten sites lost visits, although Fox News (260.5 million) dropped less than a percentage point. The Gateway Pundit, a website that promoted false claims the 2020 US presidential election was stolen, was not far behind, rising 9% month-on-month to 29.5 million.

• Only 15 out of the top 50 news websites in the US grew traffic year on year in May, according to the latest data from Similarweb.
• February 12, 2026 • Months after the killing of Charlie Kirk, a growing number of lawsuits by people claim they were illegally punished, fired and even arrested for making negative comments about Kirk.
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• The Independent’s chief executive Christian Broughton told Press Gazette last year that US expansion, along with e-commerce, Independent TV, reader revenues and AI, are the main drivers of growth for the publisher.

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Among the wider top 50, The Cool Down, which entered our ranking last month for the first time in 42nd position, saw strong growth for another month, moving up from 42nd to 35th in the table. Celebrity newsbrand People was the fastest-growing news website in the US in March according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking. The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking (rank 11, 115.4 million visits), pulling further ahead of the BBC (rank 13, 106.1 million), which fell one place from twelfth in March. Those that declined only saw small traffic drops with People (down 4% compared to March) and Washington Post (117 million, also down 4%) seeing the largest drops.

The sharpest month-on-month fall was seen at January’s fastest grower, The Los Angeles Times. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US. The Atlantic recorded 30.4 million visits in March according to Similarweb, meaning it was also up 30% compared to March 2024. The Sun was the fastest falling title in Press Gazette’s top-50 ranking, dropping 61.5% year on year to 22.1 million visits. Men’s Journal rose 338% year on year to 23.5 million visits and sports news website Athlon Sports grew 144/7% to 40.7 million visits. Most of the top ten sites saw steep year-on-year drops with CNN down 27.9% year on year to 311.7 million visits , Fox News down 23.9% year on year and the New York Post down 27%.

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