Just three of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw month-on-month growth in April.

Some 47 news sites saw a decline in global visits compared to March, according to the latest Similarweb data.

The biggest drops were seen by the Daily Mail (139.9 million visits) and Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera (140.5 million), down by 36% and 33% respectively.

This follows a particularly strong March for Al Jazeera, when the site led year-on-year growth (up 397%) and month-on-month growth (up 233%) reaching 210.8 million global visits.

Despite its month-on-month decline in April, it still recorded the strongest growth year on year among the top 50 sites, up 257%.

Recent traffic spikes for the site likely reflects increased interest in Middle East news after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.

Indian sites Rediff (50.6 million visits) and NDTV (200.5 million) were among the only three to see growth compared to March, up 7% and 1% respectively. US business and technology site Forbes also posted growth, up 6% to 83.7 million visits.

Nine sites saw traffic grow year on year in April. Substack ranked behind Al Jazeera, with visits increasing by 47% to 164.4 million, followed by NDTV, up 39%.

NDTV was the only site to see both year-on-year and month-on-month growth in April.

India.com (50.4 million visits) and The Hindustan Times (135.8 million) saw the biggest year-on-year declines in traffic – down 66% and 50% respectively.

This was followed by Canadian news site CBC, which fell 46% year on year to 56 million visits.

Huffington Post re-entered the top 50 in April, despite a 7% decline month on month to 36.9 million visits. It replaced Newsweek, which fell by 31.1% compared to March to 33.9 million visits.

Similarweb has recently changed the methodology used to calculate the global audience for the BBC online. The BBC data is not simply the total of bbc.co.uk and bbc.com, but accounts for .com visits in the UK that get redirected to bbc.co.uk, and visits from elsewhere that get redirected from bbc.co.uk to bbc.com.

March 2026

Qatar-based news site Al Jazeera saw global traffic growth of almost 400% in March compared to a year earlier, according to the latest Similarweb data.

The Al Jazeera website had 210.8 million global visits in March, up 397% year on year and by 233% month on month.

The spike in traffic likely reflects increased interest in Middle East news after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.

Al Jazeera ranked 31^st in Press Gazette’s monthly ranking of the top 50 English-language news websites in the world in February but has risen to 11^th place.

It led year-on-year growth for the second consecutive month, having risen by 62% to 63.4 million in February.

Substack recorded the second-biggest traffic increase year on year in March, up 45% to 169.1 million. This was followed by India-based NDTV, up 32% to 199.5 million.

Overall, 17 out of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw year-on-year traffic growth, while 31 declined.

Two India-based sites, India.com (56.2 million visits) and The Hindustan Times (138.7 million), saw traffic drop by around half (58% and 46% respectively). Newsweek saw the second biggest fall, down by 57% to 49.1 million.

All three newsbrands had also seen the biggest traffic declines year on year in February.

Some 44 out of 50 sites saw traffic grow compared to last month, while five sites saw traffic drop.

Reuters had the second biggest month-on-month traffic growth, up 46% to 119.5 million, followed by Russian website RT (up 38% to 55.9 million).

Canadian broadcaster CBC saw the biggest decline compared to February, down 39% to 62.6 million visits. This was followed by Forbes (down 8% to 78.9 million).

February 2026

Qatar-based Al Jazeera saw the biggest year-on-year traffic growth among the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world in February.

The site grew traffic by 62% to 63.4 million visits compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Similarweb data.

The growth likely reflects increased interest in news from the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region. The US launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.

Al Jazeera’s growth has ended newsletter platform Substack’s seven-month run with the biggest year-on-year traffic increase in Press Gazette’s top 50 ranking, a position it held since July 2025.

Behind Al Jazeera, Canadian broadcaster CBC recorded the second-biggest year-on-year growth in traffic in February, up 38% to 102.7 million visits.

Substack was third, recording 37% year-on-year traffic growth and an 8% month-on-month decline to 153.3 million visits.

Some 40 out of 50 sites saw year-on-year declines in traffic.

Four of the five sites to see biggest declines year on year were India-based: India.com (down 71% to 41.7 million visits), Hindustan Times (down 57% to 103.2 million), Indian Express (down 48% to 75.1 million) and News 18 (down 41% to 96.4 million).

US site Newsweek was also among the five worst hit year on year, down 48% to 47.2 million visits.

Only eight sites saw traffic increase in February compared to January.

CBC saw the biggest month-on-month growth, up 60%. This was followed by India-based NDTV, up 13% to 171.1 million, and Al Jazeera, up 8%.

India.com saw the highest decline month on month, down 21% to 41.7 million visits, followed by The Washington Post (down 20% to 67.1 million).

At the start of February The Washington Post cut one-third of staff across the company, including more than 300 journalists.

The Independent (57.3 million visits), Russian site RT (40.6 million) and Fox News (236.8 million) followed in month-on-month declines in traffic, all dropping 17%.

January 2026

Just seven of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw year-on-year growth in visits in January.

Some 43 news sites saw a decline in visits compared to January last year, according to the latest Similarweb data, with Indian sites India.com (52.7 million visits) and Hindustan Times (99.3 million visits) down the most by 72% and 63% respectively.

This was followed by Forbes, down 48% to 94.8 million visits.

The widespread decline continues a trend as in December, only eight sites saw year-on-year growth in visits.

Of the seven sites that saw year-on-year growth in January, Substack was up 44% to 166.9 million visits. The newsletter platform has reported the biggest year-on-year growth in Press Gazette’s top-50 ranking for seven months since July 2025.

Qatar-based 24-hour news channel Al Jazeera recorded the second biggest year-on-year growth of 39% to 58.8 million, while US political site The Hill followed with a 38% increase in visits to 56.6 million.

Meanwhile, most of the top 50 English-language sites posted month-on-month growth in January, with 36 sites seeing an increase in visits compared to December 2025.

The biggest month-on-month increase was at Al Jazeera (up 64%), followed by AP News (up 38% to 114 million visits) and NBC News (up 37% to 106.7 million).

As well as the biggest year-on-year decline, Hindustan Times also saw the biggest month-on-month fall in visits, down 22%. This was followed by Newsweek (down 16% month on month to 53 million visits) and One India (down 9% to 58.8 million).

December 2025

Newsletter platform Substack has recorded the highest year-on-year growth for six consecutive months across the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world.

In December, Substack continued to see the biggest growth year on year, up by almost half (48%) to 140.6 million visits according to the latest Similarweb data. It has held this lead since July 2025.

[Read more: The Free Press goes from zero to $150m valuation in five years on Substack]

The Hill followed for biggest year-on-year growth, up 39% to 44.2 million visits, ahead of Politico, up 31% to 46.4 million visits.

None of the top ten English-language newsbrands in the world saw year-on-year growth.

Daily Mail saw the biggest drop year on year among the top ten, down 23% to 212.8 million visits, alongside The Times of India (down 23% to 282.9 million visits). This was followed by Fox News, down 19% to 226.4 million.

However eight of the top ten English-language news sites saw growth month on month in December.

Despite its year-on-year drop, the Daily Mail saw the biggest month-on-month growth in this group, up 9%.

This was followed by MSN, up 7% to 496.9 million visits, and Google News, up 4% to 297.6 million visits.

Across the whole top 50, India-based sites India.com (57.4 million visits) and Hindustan Times (127 million visits) saw their year-on-year visits drop by more than half, down 70% and 52% respectively. It follows previous significant year-on-year declines for the India-based sites in November.

Russian website RT and Forbes followed in year-on-year decline, both down by 45% to 41.3 million and 93.3 million visits respectively.

Despite this Forbes led month-on-month growth, up 17%. Newsweek recorded the biggest month-on-month decline, down 33% to 63.3 million visits.

November 2025

None of the top ten English-language news sites saw growth in visits, either month on month or year on year, in November, according to the latest Similarweb data.

US sites Fox News (223 million visits) and CNN (431.4 million visits) saw the biggest year-on-year declines in visits amid the top ten sites, down 36% and 35% respectively.

This is likely to be because November 2024 featured the US presidential election.

They were followed by the Daily Mail, down by a quarter (25%) to 195.1 million.

Yahoo Finance dropped the most month on month among the top ten sites, down 13% to 208.9 million visits.

India.com saw the biggest year-on-year decline across all sites by 60% to 69 million visits, followed by Forbes, down 56% to 79.5 million.

Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips told Press Gazette last month the brand has lost traffic to articles it was previously known for, such as “who’s the richest person in the world?”, because of Google’s AI Overviews.

Of all the 50 biggest English-language news sites, 43 saw double-digit declines year on year.

Substack was one of just two sites to see year-on-year growth, up 38% to 129.7 million visits. The other site, India-based NDTV, grew by only 1% year on year to 139.1 million.

Twelve sites grew their visits month on month. Newsweek saw the biggest boost, up 19% to 94.5 million visits, followed by NBC News (up 12% to 89.1 million) and The Independent (up 11% to 72.8 million).

Newsweek editor Jennifer H Cunningham recently told Press Gazette she is aiming to make the magazine brand “reflective of the modern era and of modern storytelling” with a major redesign across print and online.

Some 32 sites saw month-on-month declines in visits, with Yahoo Finance and CNBC (102.2 million visits) both down the most by 13%.

Despite US political news site The Hill leading monthly growth in October, it then saw 11% month-on-month decline in visits to 43.3 million in November.

October 2025

US political news site The Hill led monthly growth among the world’s most visited English-language news websites in October, according to the latest Similarweb data.

The Hill was one of six sites that saw both monthly and yearly increases in web traffic in October and saw the highest month-on-month traffic increase, up 40% to 48.6 million visits.

This was followed by India.com (up 15% to 68 million visits month on month) and Yahoo Finance (up 14% to 239.2 million).

NBC News saw the biggest month-on-month decrease in October, down 32% to 79.7 million visits. This indicates the newsbrand saw only a brief spike in September, when its visits were up 60% month on month to 117.4 million.

Most of the top 50 English-language news websites in the world saw monthly declines in visits in October 2025, with just 15 recording web traffic higher than September.

This contrasts with the September data, when more than half (26) of the top 50 saw traffic growth compared to the month prior.

Just six sites saw year-on-year growth in October. Substack saw the biggest increase, up 49% to 129.6 million visits. This was followed by Politico (up 21% to 58.4 million) and The Hill (up 10%).

In September more than double the number of sites saw year-on-year growth, with 16 increasing traffic from the year prior.

Some 34 websites saw double-digit year-on-year declines in October, with India.com down the most by 64%, followed by Forbes (down 59% to 75.4 million) and Hindustan Times (down 47% to 149 million).

Of the ten biggest sites globally, three saw visits increase month on month. Yahoo Finance saw the biggest jump, followed by The Times of India (up 2% to 309.4 million) and Google News (up 1% to 301.8 million).

Only one of the top ten sites saw a rise in visits on an annual basis: Yahoo Finance, up 4%.

September 2025

Just over half (26) of the top 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw visits grow in September compared to August 2025, according to the latest Similarweb data.

In August, just six sites saw traffic growth when compared to the month prior.

US-based NBC News saw the biggest month-on-month increase of 60% to 117.4 million visits, followed by Al Jazeera (up 59% to 56.4 million) and AP News (up 33% to 106.6 million).

Russian website RT saw the biggest month-on-month drop in visits, down 20% to 47.8 million. This was followed by Buzzfeed (down 17% to 58.6 million) and the Mirror (down 16% to 43.5 million).

Qatar-based site Al Jazeera saw the second-biggest growth compared to September 2024, up 18% year on year behind only Substack, which saw a 56% year-on-year gain to 125.8 million visits.

In August, Substack was the only English-language news site that saw year-on-year growth.

In September, this increased to 16 sites, with Politico (up 12% to 51.5 million), Wall Street Journal (up 10% to 87 million) and NBC (up 10%) all seeing double-digit growth year on year.

Of the ten biggest sites globally, half saw visits increase monthly. CNN saw the biggest month-on-month jump, up 22% to 508 million, followed by Fox News (up 14% to 285.2 million).

This was the case for just three of the top ten sites on an annual basis: BBC (up 6.5% year on year to 934.7 million), The New York Times (up 3.7% to 639.4 million) and The Guardian (up 1.5% to 308.2 million).

Some 33 of the top 50 sites saw declines in growth compared to September last year, with India.com and Forbes seeing the biggest drops, down by almost half (down 58% to 59.4 million and 55% to 78.2 million respectively).

Business Insider (64.4 million) and News 18 (142.5 million) both dropped by 38% year on year.

August 2025

Just one of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw their monthly visits grow in August compared to the same month in 2024.

Substack was up 49% to 123.8 million visits in August compared to a year before, while the other 49 sites saw a dip, according to the latest Similarweb data.

Four sites saw a single-digit decline: aggregator Newsnow (down 6% to 45.3 million visits), The New York Times (6% to 598.6 million), Wall Street Journal (7% to 78.8 million) and Yahoo Finance (8% to 221.6 million). The remaining sites saw double-digit drops.

Of the top ten biggest sites globally, CNN saw the biggest year-on-year decrease of 31% to 416.9 million views. Daily Mail saw a 30% decline in site visits year on year and a 4.5% drop month on month, totalling 222.6 million views in August 2025.

The biggest year-on-year declines were at Forbes (down 53% to 85.5 million visits – the steepest decline year on year for the second month in a row), Huffington Post (down 45% to 41.3 million), Business Insider (down 44% to 66.6 million), and News 18 (down 42% to 146.3 million). The Independent, CBC and Washington Post also closely followed with drops of 41% in year on year site visits.

The majority of sites (44 out of 50) were also down month on month in August, a significant jump from July’s 29 out of 50 seeing decreases.

The biggest month-on-month declines, all down 22%, were at Newsweek (98 million visits), New York Post (115.3 million) and India’s Rediff (50.6 million).

The biggest month-on-month growth was at The Hindu (up 11% to 73 million visits), News 18 (up 5%), and CBC (up 3% to 57.4 million).

July 2025

All but four of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw their monthly visits drop in July compared to the same month a year earlier.

The vast traffic declines across the board included all ten of the biggest sites in the world, according to the latest Similarweb data. The biggest drop among the top-ten sites was CNN, down 33.6% to 471.6 million visits in July.

Substack was the only site to see double-digit year-on-year growth in visits and was up 46.9% to 125.2 million in July.

The other three sites to see any growth were: Indian Express (up 1.9% to 134 million visits), CNBC (up 1.8% to 125.7 msubillion) and People (up 0.1% to 198.2 million).

The biggest declines were at Forbes (down 51.8% to 92.4 million visits – the steepest year-on-year fall for the second month in a row), India’s News18 (down 44.8% to 140 million), NBC News (down 42.8% to 86.5 million), Huffpost (down 41.9% to 44.3 million) and Washington Post (down 40.8% to 82.3 million).

The majority of sites (29 out of 50) were also down month on month in July.

The biggest month-on-month declines were at India.com (down 46% to 66.2 million visits) and Reuters (down 20.7% to 80.6 million).

The biggest month-on-month growth was at Indian Express (up 15.5%), Business Insider (up 13.2% to 76.9 million visits) and New York Post (up 12.9% to 147.4 million).

Many publishers have been attributing traffic declines to the arrival and widespread adoption in the past year of Google’s AI tools AI Overviews and, more recently, AI Mode.

June 2025

Al Jazeera led growth among the world’s leading English-language news websites in June 2025, according to the latest Similarweb data.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera saw growth in its monthly visits by 66% month on month and 53% year on year to 85.3 million – the highest on a monthly basis and third-highest compared to last year.

The biggest year-on-year growth was at India.com, up 73% compared to June 2024, but it was down 21% compared to May this year to 122.5 million visits.

The second-biggest annual growth was at Substack, which was up 57% to 118.7 million visits, but saw smaller growth of 8% month on month.

However website traffic continued to decline year on year for the majority of the world’s top 50 English-language news websites in June.

Eleven of the top 50 sites are based in India, although seven of the ten sites seeing the biggest monthly drops were Indian – Indian Express dropped 22% month on month. The Australian branch of ABC declined the most month on month (24%).

Just two of the top 50 sites is based in Australia, with nine in the UK, and 28 in America.

US-based Forbes saw the biggest hit to its year-on-year visits, with almost half (42%) lost. In January, the newsbrand revealed it planned to cut 5% of its staff.

May 2025

Most of the world’s leading English language news websites lost traffic year on year in May 2025, with only 16 sites out of 50 growing visits year on year – according to Similarweb data.

Seven out of the top ten fastest-growing news websites were based in India, with India.com and India Times both doubling traffic year on year.

Substack and environment-news websites The Cooldown were the two fastest-growing US news websites, up 41.8% and 86.4% year on year respectively.

Forbes was the fastest-falling site in the top 50, dropping 41.7% year on year to 91.3m monthly visits.

The Sun and New York Post appear to have put the brakes on their steep declines of recent months with traffic flat month on month.

Some 23 of the top 50 English language news websites in the world are US-based,12 are based in India and eight are UK-based.

The most popular English language news website in the world in May 2025 was the New York Times with 657.3m visits in the month, up 3% year on year.

April 2025

Just over half the world’s leading English language news websites lost traffic year on year in April 2025 as the New York Times remained the world’s most visited news website, according to Similarweb data.

The New York Times has been top in Press Gazette global ranking since March 2025, taking top spot from the BBC after a change in the way BBC data is calculated.

The top three fastest-growing sites in Press Gazette ranking were all based in India: Hindustan Times (up 88.8% year on year), India Times (up 58.2%) year on year and India.com (up 58.2%).

Substack was the fastest-growing US-based site, growing 51.2% year on year to 112.2 million monthly visits.

Looking at major news brands, Reuters (up 23.2%), Politico (up 27%) and Wall Street Journal (up 17%) were among the biggest winners.

Tabloid titles were among the biggest fallers including The Sun (down 27.9%), New York Post (down 25.6%) and Daily Mail (down 24%).

Similarweb estimates website traffic data based on: millions of websites and apps which share their first-party analytics, a collection of consumer products that aggregate anonymous device behavioural data, a global network of organisations that collect “digital signals” across the internet and public data extraction.

March 2025

American and Canadian political and hard news sites were among the biggest year-on-year web traffic gainers in the world in March 2025 amid a turbulent start to the second Trump administration.

Strong growth from the New York Times, coupled with a change in methodology from Similarweb, means it has overtaken the BBC to become number one on Press Gazette’s ranking of the top-50 English language news websites worldwide.

The Associated Press (148 million visits, up 64% year-on-year), Reuters (111.4 million, up 54%) and Politico (53.5 million, up 29%) saw the second, fourth and fifth largest increases to their web visits respectively compared to March 2024.

Only Indian news site India.com (132.7 million, up 86%) saw more growth over the year. Publishing platform Substack, which has become home to numerous small political writing outlets, saw the third most growth, rising 54% year-on-year to 116.9 million visits.

The picture was not straightforwardly one of growth across the 50 most-visited English-language news sites in the world, with half losing traffic compared to March 2024. However 11 managed to grow their visits by 10% or more, and of them eight by at least 20%.

Among the ten most-visited sites specifically, seven grew their traffic, with People magazine (195.9 million, up 11% year-on-year) the biggest beneficiary. It was followed by The New York Times 680.5 million, up 6%), Yahoo Finance (248.5 million, up 5%) and BBC News (678.6 million, up 4%).

March marks a change in the way Press Gazette and Similarweb calculate the BBC’s global traffic. Previously we added together global traffic to the bbc.co.uk to determine the organisation’s total visits. However, Similarweb has now advised that because visits to bbc.com outside the US are redirected to bbc.co.uk, this likely double-counts some traffic.

As a result, from this month we are calculating the BBC’s world traffic by adding the global bbc.co.uk figure to the US bbc.com figure. This means that the BBC has dropped from clear first place, with more than one billion visits per month, to an extremely close second behind The New York Times.

Month-on-month every news site in the English-language top ten saw traffic grow by at least 5%, with the fact March is 11% longer than February a contributing factor.

The greatest growth was at The Guardian (334.8 million, up 11% compared with February), followed by the NYT (also up 11%), Yahoo Finance (248.5 million, up 9%) and Google News (342.8 million, up 9%).

Among the broader top 50 all but 11 sites saw month-on-month growth, with the biggest increase seen at American business publisher CNBC (140.6 million, up 30%). It was followed by Newsweek (115.2 million, up 26%), Business Insider (83.7 million, up 23%) and Australia’s ABC (72.9 million, up 20%).

Despite India.com’s year-on-year success, Indian news sites generally were among the biggest fallers in March both year-on-year and month-on-month.

There were 11 Indian news sites in the global top 50 in March, many of which have risen up the ranking in the last two years. Six saw month-on-month traffic drop and nine saw a fall year-on-year.

The sharpest year-on-year decline at any top 50 site came at India’s livemint.com (53.9 million, down 43%), followed by Indian site News18 (163.4 million, down 33%), UK tabloid The Sun (56.2 million, down 32%) and India Today (71 million, down 29%).

February 2025

The majority of the top English-language news sites in the world saw visits fall in February 2025, with just six recording web traffic higher than in January.

Month-on-month growth was seen at US political news site The Hill (48 million visits, up 17%) and the Associated Press (139.9 million, up 6%), followed by Canadian sites CBC (74.4 million, up 6%) and Reuters (109.8 million, up 5%) and Indian ones Indian Express (109.1 million, up 3%) and News18 (164 million, up 2%).

All other top titles – including every UK-based site in the top 50 – lost traffic. The sharpest drop was at another US current affairs brand, CBS News (87 million, down 25% month-on-month), followed by business publisher Forbes (137.9 million, down 24%) and India.com (143.5 million, down 24%).

Among the ten most-visited English-language news sites in the world every brand lost traffic compared to February. The biggest fall was at the BBC (still the world’s most popular English language news website), where visits fell 14% from more than a billion in January to 991.9 million last month. CNN (487.2 million, down 13%) was the next hardest-hit, followed by the UK’s Daily Mail (248.4 million, down 12%).

The shallowest month-on-month declines were seen at Fox News (289.8 million, down 5%), People magazine (186 million, down 6%) and aggregator MSN (526.2 million, down 7%).

Indian news sites have risen up the charts rapidly over the last year and now make up 11 of the top 50 and a quarter of the top 20 titles. CNN affiliate News18 had the most visits of these Indian sites in February, ranking 12th overall, and was followed by India Times (162.1 million) at 13th.

India.com, the 15th-most visited site in the month, also saw the greatest year-on-year growth of any top-50 publisher, increasing its visits 191% compared with February 2024. It was followed by the AP (up 71%) and publishing platform Substack (112 million visits, up 59%).

Among the top ten largest sites half grew year-on-year, despite their month-on-month falls. The largest growth was recorded by The New York Times (616.1 million, up 6%) followed by People (up 4%), the BBC (up 4%), Fox News (289.8 million, up 2%) and CNN (487.2 million, up 1%).

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, saw the largest fall, dropping 19% but remaining in the top ten at eighth place. It was followed by MSN (down 7%), The Guardian (300.6 million, down 2%), and aggregators Yahoo Finance (227.3 million, down 2%) and Google News (313.8 million, down 1%).

Despite their rise in 2024, several Indian sites were also among the largest fallers year-on-year in February. The biggest decline compared with February 2024 was seen at India Today (67.5 million, down 36%), while fellow Indian sites Livemint (60.5 million, down 35%), News18 (down 23%) and Rediff (53.3 million, down 19%) all appeared among the ten largest losers of traffic.

Other notable sites to shed visitors year-on-year included Business Insider (68.1 million, down 35%), UK tabloids The Sun (53 million, down 29%) and Daily Mirror (49.5 million, down 29%) and Huffpost (49.8 million, down 22%).

January 2025

India.com was the fastest-growing top 50 global English-language news website in December.

Its 177% year-on-year growth put it just outside the top ten with 188m visits according to Similarweb.

Overall there are 11 India-based sites in the top 50 compared with nine UK-based websites and 24 US-based ones. India.com was launched 14 years ago and offers readers the option of viewing it in English or Hindi.

Among the 50 most-visited English-language news sites in the world last month, the three largest month-on-month increases were seen at CBS News (116.2 million, up 39%), global news agency Reuters (104.9 million, up 25%) and the Associated Press (132.6 million, up 23%).

The Washington Post (112.8 million, up 17%), NBC News (110.3 million, up 21%) and CNN (556.6 million, up 12%) were all also among the ten-fastest growing sites compared to December 2024.

Other sites in the top ten fastest-growing list included publishing platform Substack (115.6 million, up 22%), Indian broadcaster NDTV (130.1 million, up 16%) and British opinion-led broadcaster GB News (50.1 million, up 18%), which in January re-appeared in the global top 50 after previously spending two months on the chart at the start of 2024.

Each of the ten most-visited news sites in January saw visits increase compared with December, with CNN, The Guardian (323.3 million, up 11%) and People magazine (197.3 million, up 10%) the biggest beneficiaries.

Compared with January last year, however, the picture was more mixed, with almost half of the top 50 recording a year-on-year decline in visits.

The biggest grower compared with last January was India.com (187.7 million, up 177%), one of several Indian publishers to have worked their way up the chart in 2024. It was followed by the Associated Press (up 57%), Substack (53%), CBS News (30.5%) and NBC News (110.3 million, up 21%).

Mirroring the broader top 50, among the ten most-visited sites six publishers gained traffic year-on-year while four lost it. The biggest growth was at The New York Times (671.1 million, up 12%), followed by People (10.1%), CNN (8.7%), the BBC (1.1 billion, up 7.9%) and aggregator Yahoo Finance (252.6 million, up 7.2%). Another aggregator, Google News (351.8 million), recorded a 0.7% rise.

Year-on-year the Daily Mail (282.9 million) saw the greatest fall among the top ten, shedding 15.3% of its traffic compared to last January despite a 3% uptick compared with December 2024. It was followed by MSN (565.5 million, down 9%), The Guardian (323.3 million, down 6%) and Fox News (306.2 million, down 3%).

The biggest year-on-year drops overall came at Indian news sites IndiaToday.in (73.7 million, down 40%) and LiveMint.com (66.1 million, down 37%). Significant falls were also registered at un-paywalled UK news sites The Sun (60.6 million, down 29%), the Daily Mirror (57.7 million, down 26%) and the Daily Mail (282.9 million, down 15%).

Month-on-month only one site, the New York Post (143.5 million) lost double-digit percentage points of traffic, recording 10% fewer visits than in December. Indian news sites made up five of the ten sites to drop traffic month-on-month, led by OneIndia.com (102 million visits, down 7%).

December 2024

Two-fifths of top English-language global news sites saw month-on-month web traffic declines of 10% or greater in December.

The largest falls were seen at the major US political and hard news sites who had been the biggest beneficiaries of November’s US election traffic boost.

They include NBC News (91.5 million visits in December, down 46.5% from November), the Associated Press (108.1 million, down 39.5%) and CBS News (83.9 million, down 25.7%).

Overall 36 of the top 50 sites in the world saw fewer visits in December than in November. The picture was more mixed when compared against December 2023, however, with 23 of the top 50 gaining traffic year-on-year.

Month-on-month, the majority of the ten most-visited sites lost traffic, with CNN (497.3 million, down 25%) falling fastest followed by Fox News (278.7 million, down 19.8%), The New York Times (633.5 million, down 13.8%) and The Guardian (292.5 million, down 12.4%).

The Daily Mail (274.6 million, up 5.8% month-on-month) and India.com (188.8 million, up 9.4%) were among the few top ten sites to grow visits compared with November.

The greatest monthly growth among the broader top 50 came at sports news site Athlon Sports (57 million visits), which spent 2024 rising up the US top 50 and in December appeared on the global top 50 for the first time. The site saw 38% month-on-month growth in December. It was followed by the UK’s Daily Express (59.6 million, up 17.6%).

Athlon Sports was also the fastest-growing site on the top 50 year-on-year, increasing its visits 353% compared with December 2023. The second biggest growth year-on-year was Indian news site India.com (up 146.6%), which has entered the top ten global English-language news sites for the first time.

Despite their month-on-month visitor contractions, there was strong annual growth at the AP (up 50.8% year-on-year) and NBC News (up 20.4%), as well as other large publishers ABC News (64.5 million, up 36.6%) and The New York Times (up 9.6%).

CNN (2.9%) and the BBC (1.1 billion, up 1.8%) also saw modest annual growth, but half the ten biggest sites by visits lost traffic compared with December 2023. These included the Daily Mail (down 18.9%), Fox News (down 10.1%) and The Guardian (down 9.6%).

The five sharpest year-on-year declines were all felt at British and Indian news sites. The fastest faller was India Today (74.1 million, down 37.7% year-on-year), followed by Live Mint (63.6 million, down 35.6%), The Sun (60.3 million, down 33%), CNN affiliate News18 (167.1 million, down 28.8%) and the Daily Mirror (56.4 million, down 24.8%).

November 2024

American hard news providers saw visits surge in November amid the 2024 US presidential election and its aftermath, data from Similarweb shows.

NBC News (170.9 million views) saw the biggest month-on-month traffic gain among the 50 most-visited English-language news sites in the world in November, growing 56.3%.

Narrowly behind was news agency the Associated Press (178.8 million visits in November) up 56% compared with October.

Both sites were also the fastest-growing sites year-on-year among the top 50, with the AP notching a 161.4% increase in its traffic compared to November 2023, and NBC up 120.9%. They were followed by another US hard news mainstay, ABC News (85.1 million visits, up 92.2% year-on-year and 19% month-on-month).

Other websites to experience notable traffic surges in November included broadcasters Fox News (347.3 million, up 21.8% month-on-month), CBS News (112.8 million, up 19.7%) and CNN (662.8 million, up 11.5%), US paper of record The New York Times (734.8 million, up 11.6%) and agency Reuters (105.7 million, up 14.3%).

There were month-on-month traffic declines at nearly half of the sites in the top 50, although they were relatively mild: of the 24 that dropped, nine saw visits dip by 2% or less and 17 by less than 5%. The biggest month-on-month traffic fall was at Huffpost (58.1 million visits, down 12% month-on-month), followed by Indian CNN affiliate News18 (185.9 million, down 11%).

Among only the ten biggest English-language news sites in the world, Fox News saw the strongest month-on-month growth in November, followed by USA Today (233.9 million, up 12%), The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian (333.8 million, up 4.1%) and the BBC (1.1 billion, up 3.3%), which remains the largest publisher on the ranking.

Google News (326.3 million, down 4.7%) saw the biggest drop among the top ten, followed by fellow aggregator MSN (593.4 million, down 3.4%).

After the AP, NBC and ABC, the biggest year-on-year growth in the global top 50 came at India.com (172.5 million, up 92%), one of several Indian news sites to have seen substantial growth in the past year. Politico (63.2 million, up 60.6% year-on-year), creator platform Substack (94.3 million, up 65.9%) and Newsweek (128.9 million, up 65.9%) were also among the ten fastest-growers.

Among the top ten sites USA Today saw by far the biggest year-on-year growth, with visits increasing 65.4% compared to November last year. It was followed by The New York Times (up 35.1%), CNN (up 34.1%) and Fox News (17.2%).

Two sites in the top ten lost traffic compared with a year ago: Google News (down 1.5%) and DailyMail.co.uk (259.6 million, down 16.9%). The Mail is among several UK tabloids to have taken a traffic hit from recent Google algorithm changes — rival publisher The Sun (60.9 million) recorded the second-steepest overall year-on-year traffic drop in November, with visits falling 21.1%.

Overall nine publishers in the top 50 saw year-on-year traffic decline. The largest was at News Corp’s news.com.au (69.5 million, down 21.9%), with double-digit drops also seen at another UK tabloid, the Mirror (57.5 million, down 14%) and Indian sites News18 (down 16.6%), India Today (93.6 million, down 15%) and Live Mint (75.1 million, down 14.7%).

October 2024

Most of the world’s top 50 English-language news sites lost traffic year-on-year in October, but saw month-on-month growth after two months of decline.

Newsweek (131.6 million visits in October 2024), which has repeatedly ranked as the fastest-growing news site year-on-year in 2024, again topped the chart for visitor growth, seeing a 105.6% increase compared with October 2023.

It was followed by India.com (191.2 million, up 86% year-on-year), and publishing platform Substack (86.9 million, up 44.4%), which may have been a beneficiary of interest in the run-up to the US election on 5 November.

Other US hard news outlets, including CBS News (94.3 million, up 26.3% year-on-year), ABC News (71.5 million, up 23.1%) and the Associated Press (114.6 million, up 13.8%) also saw year-on-year growth.

But among the top 50, 31 publishers saw their total visits drop compared with October 2023. The biggest fall was at Middle Eastern-focused world news publisher Al Jazeera (66.2 million), where visits fell more than a third compared with last year.

News Corp Australia’s News.com.au (68.9 million, down 24%), as well as British mass-market publications Mail Online (268 million, down 28%), the Daily Mirror (62.4 million, down 23.5%) and The Sun (61.6 million, down 23.4%) were also among the biggest fallers.

Among the ten most-visited English-language news sites in the world there was similarly little growth. The greatest increase in visits came at The New York Times (546 million), which grew its traffic by 6.3% compared with October 2023, followed by Yahoo Finance (229.4 million, up 4.6%) and aggregator MSN (614 million, up 3.5%).

Every other site in the top ten lost traffic year-on-year, with the biggest falls observed at Mail Online, Fox News (285.1 million, down 20.9%) and Indian CNN partner News18.com (208.9 million, down 19.6%).

The picture was different when compared to September 2024, however. Seven of the top ten grew month-on-month, with Yahoo Finance (up 7.3%) notching the greatest increase. It was followed by the BBC News website (1 billion, up 5.7% month-on-month), The New York Times (up 5.6%) and The Guardian (320.6 million, up 5.5%).

Among the wider top 50 meanwhile it was Al Jazeera, which recorded the biggest year-on-year traffic decline, that saw the largest month-on-month traffic increase, growing visits 38.4%.

Six other sites increased their traffic by double-digit percentages, including India.com (up 36.1% month-on-month), fellow Indian site NDTV (118.9 million, up 15.9%), Newsweek (20.6%) and Canada’s CBC (11.4%). Another Indian news site, The Hindustan Times (137.5 million), fell just outside this group with 9.4% month-on-month growth.

Among the ten top 50 sites that did see a month-on-month traffic decline, the largest falls came at Business Insider (93.6 million, down 10.3%), followed by News18 (down 8.8%), CBS News (down 7.9%) and British tabloid the Daily Express (down 6.8%).

September 2024

Half of the world’s top 50 most-visited English-language news sites grew their traffic year-on-year in September – but all but two saw visits decline month-on-month.

The only sites to grow their web traffic month-on-month were CBS News (102.3 million visits, up 18% month-on-month) and India.com (140.54 million, up 42%).

The latter, which was also the fourth-fastest growing site on the top 50 year-on-year, continues a trend of healthy growth at Indian news sites in recent months.

As well as the growth at CBS News, the sites with the shallowest month-on-month declines in September included US hard news staples NBC News (106.6 million visits, down 2.4% month-on-month), The New York Times (517.3 million, down 3.6%) and CNN (571.2 million, down 5.9%), possibly reflecting the approach of the US presidential election in November.

Last month English language news sites outside India saw a sharp pull-back coming out neof an eventful July that saw the opening of the Paris Olympics, Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race and an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Indian sites generally fared well, however, increasing traffic compared with July or remaining largely stable.

This month India.com, OneIndia.com and IndianExpress.com were among the ten sites with the most growth (or the least shrinkage) month-on-month, but several Indian sites were also the fastest droppers, including The Hindu newspaper (72.2 million, down 17.6% month-on-month), LiveMint.com (69.1 million, down 17%) and NDTV (102.6 million, down 25.8%).

Canadian broadcaster CBC saw the biggest month-on-month decline in the top 50 (60.3 million visits in September, down 37.9% on August), and UK newspapers The Sun (60.2 million, down 23.3%), The Telegraph (109.1 million, down 19.8%), the Daily Express (59.4 million, down 16.2%) and the Daily Mirror (59.5 million, also down 16.2%) were all among the biggest fallers.

This picture was repeated year-on-year, with the Mirror (down 34.9% year-on-year), The Sun (down 23.2%) and Daily Mail (279 million visits, down 20.2%) among the top ten largest fallers compared with September 2023. They were, again, joined by Indian news sites Live Mint (down 26.8% year-on-year), India Today (down 26.8%), The Hindu (down 20%), NDTV (down 17.2%) and Rediff (61 million visits, down 14.2% year-on-year) also in the top ten.

Meanwhile Newsweek (109 million visits, up 108.3%) was once again the fastest year-on-year grower, followed by CBS, fellow US news site ABC News (69.4 million, up 51.8% year-on-year) and India.com.

Approximately a third of sites in the top 50 saw double-digit growth compared with September 2023.

Among the ten most visited English-language news sites in the world no site grew its web visits month-on-month. The New York Times, CNN, MSN (601.2 million visits, down 6.1% month-on-month) and Google News (329.2 million, down 6.3%) saw the shallowest declines while the deepest occurred at The Guardian (303.8 million, down 11.7%), the Daily Mail and Yahoo Finance (213.7 million, down 11.1%).

Year-on-year, meanwhile, as many top-ten sites grew their traffic as shrank. The New York Times grew the most compared with last September, with visits rising 14%, followed by CNN (10%), MSN (5%) and Fox News (288.5 million visits, up 2.8% on last year).

The Mail saw the fastest drop, shedding 20% of its traffic, followed by the BBC’s sites (986 million, down 10.6%), despite which they remained the most-visited English-language news sites in the world. The Guardian also shrank year-on-year (down 4%), meaning all the British top ten sites lost traffic year-on-year.

August 2024

Most of the world’s most-visited English-language news sites grew traffic year-on-year in August, despite month-on-month traffic declines.

American and British news sites saw the sharpest month-on-month contractions coming out of a busy July that saw the opening of the Paris Olympics, Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race and an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Indian news sites, on the other hand, were among the most resilient of the top 50 newsbrands in August. Five of the 12 sites that grew their traffic were Indian, and a further two Indian brands kept visits steady compared with July.

Year-on-year, the fastest-growing site in August was again Newsweek (up 141% to 134.9 million visits), which has registered as either the fastest or second-fastest growing brand year-on-year every month since December 2023.

Newsweek was followed by ABC News (78.1 million visits, up 71% year-on-year), People (205.2 million, up 53%) and newsletter platform Substack (82.9 million, up 45%).

Here too Indian websites are well-represented, with Indiatimes (194.2 million, up 41% year-on-year) and DNAIndia.com, (72.1 million, up 38%), also known as Daily News and Analysis, ranking as the sixth and eighth-fastest growing top 50 news sites respectively.

Among the ten most-visited English language news sites the picture is mixed, with another Indian site, CNN partner News18.com (254 million visits) growing traffic 11% year-on-year to enter the top ten for the first time in ninth place. The next fastest-growing among the top ten was The New York Times (536.4 million, up 9%) and msn.com (640.4 million, up 3%).

The fastest decliner among the top ten was Mail Online, which saw visits drop 18% year-on-year to 314.8 million.

The Mail saw the third-largest drop year-on-year among the whole top 50. The second largest, despite the success of other Indian sites, was IndiaToday.in (99.6 million visits, down 22%) and fellow British tabloid Mirror.co.uk (71 million, down 35%).

Month-on-month DNAIndia was the fastest grower, seeing visits rise 49% compared with August. It was followed by India.com (99 million, up 29%) and Canada’s CBC (97.1 million, up 31%).

Relatively few sites saw rapid month-on-month growth in August, however, with five of the top 50 registering double-digit traffic increases.

Most of the biggest fallers were big names in breaking news who saw traffic correct after the bumper July. NBC News shed the most visitors month-on-month, dropping 28% to 109.2 million. It was followed by ABC News which – despite seeing the second-greatest growth year-on-year – lost 17% of its visitors compared with July.

Among the ten largest English-language sites globally there was little growth month-on-month, with Yahoo Finance (240.5 million) growing visits 2% and News18 growing them 0.2%. The rest of the top ten saw traffic contractions, led by CNN (607.2 million, down 14% month-on-month), Fox News (324.5 million, down 12% month-on-month) and Mail Online (down 8% month-on-month).

July 2024

Most of the world’s biggest news website saw strong growth in July in what was a bumper month for news.

July saw an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, Joe Biden announcing he would not stand for re-election as US president and the start of the Paris Olympics (see in-depth coverage of Olympics news web traffic here).

The fastest-growing English language news websites in the world were mainly based in the US with Newsweek, ABC News and AP News all up more than 100% year on year. All of the fastest-growing sites in our top 50 were US-based with the exception of India-based NDTV.com.

Seven out of the top ten English language news websites in the world grew year on year, with CNN and Fox News both up more than 20%.

The biggest news website in the world remains the BBC with 1.2 billion visits per month (although it should be noted this includes the entire BBC website domain, not just the news section).

Month on month ABC News in the US was the fastest-growing global top-50 news website, up 79%, with UK-based Sky News the third fastest-growing site globally up 47%.

May 2024

Note: Figures from May 2024 and earlier were calculated using an old Similarweb data model that has since been updated.

The BBC was the fastest-growing of the ten biggest news websites in the world in May, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

Visits to the website of the UK’s flagship broadcaster were up 9% in May compared to April to 1.1 billion. While Similarweb data includes traffic to the BBC’s entertainment and other content too, the site has a major news offering.

It was followed by Fox News (292 million, up 8%), New York Times (685.5 million, up 4%) and Google News (383.2 million, up 3%), according to digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

None of the top ten sites saw smaller audiences in May compared to April, although the audiences to the Daily Mail (364.9 million) and India Times (287.9 million) were largely unchanged from last month.

Year-on-year, among the top ten news sites by number of visits India Times was again the fastest-growing site (up 67% compared to May 2023). It was followed by the New York Times (up 19%), Yahoo Finance (248.2 million, up 10%), The Guardian (368.2 million, up 5%) and the BBC (up 4%).

Among the wider top 50, AP saw the biggest growth with visits to the newswire’s site up 20% month-on-month to 115 million. British newsbrands Sky News (77.2 million visits, up 14% month-on-month) and the Express (92.6 million, up 11%) also made the fastest-growing list.

Year-on-year Newsweek was the fastest-growing top 50 site in a list largely dominated by Indian newsbrands. Visits to newsweek.com were up 170% compared to last May to 107.4 million. Al Jazeera (63.9 million, up 55%), AP News (up 48%) and People (205.2 million, up 39%) also made the list.

The BBC was again top of the table for visits. It was followed by MSN (686 million), New York Times, CNN and Google News. The order of the top five is unchanged from last month. The Guardian in sixth place was the best-ranked UK newsbrand after the BBC.

April 2024

India Times was the biggest-growing news website in the world in April, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

Visits to the website of digital giant were up 87% year-on-year to 287.6 million as the world’s most populous country undertakes elections. It was followed by Yahoo Finance (243.9 million, up 20%), The New York Times (657 million, up 15%) and The Guardian (366.5 million, up 10%).

The remainder of the top ten newsbrands in contrast did not see traffic grow year-on-year. Fox News slumped furthest with traffic falling to 269.3 million, down 14% in April, while BBC saw a smaller fall of 5% year-on-year to 1 billion visits, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Month-on-month, among the top ten news sites by number of visits the picture was more positive with six seeing more traffic in April than in March. Top of the list was again India Times (up 8% month-on-month), followed by The Guardian (up 5%), CNN (558.2 million visits, up 3%) and the BBC (up 2%). Traffic for the remainder of the top ten was static, increasing or decreasing by less than 1% compared to March.

Among the wider top 50, five of the fastest-growing new sites year-on-year were from India with financial news site Livemint seeing the largest surge in visits compared to April 2023 (up 139% to 83.7 million). Newsweek maintained its strong growth and was the second-fastest growing, close behind Livemint with visits up 132% to 103.4 million. This echoes teh US news magazine’s strong performance in our US top 50 ranking as well.

Al Jazeera meanwhile also saw a strong month with visits up 67% year-on-year to 70.8 million. Continued interest in the war in Gaza likely lies behind the Qatari newsbrand’s strong performance in April.

Among the top 50 many of the same names that performed well year-on-year also did well in terms of month-on-month growth in visits. Indian Express led the list with visits up 36% to 156.8 million compared to March, while Al Jazeera (up 28%) and CBS News (95.4 million visits, up 24%) also saw a strong April.

The BBC was again top of the table for visits. Its monthly growth meant that it crossed the 1 billion visit threshold in April below which it had remained for the previous two months. It was followed by MSN (678.8 million), New York Times, CNN and Google News (370.9 million). The order of the top five is unchanged from last month. The Guardian fell just short of the top five in sixth place. It was the best-ranked UK newsbrand after the BBC.

March 2024

Newsweek was the biggest-growing news website in the world in March, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

The news magazine saw visits to its website more than double in March, up 128% year-on-year to 104.1 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Newsweek has seen a recent run of strong growth, and was also the fastest-growing site in recent Press Gazette rankings of the top 50 news sites in the US. The newsbrand recently appointed a new executive editor, Jennifer H. Cunningham, formerly of Business Insider, who told Press Gazette her brief is to broaden Newsweek’s audience and “to enhance and augment the journalism“.

Newsweek was followed by three Indian newsbrands, ahead of national elections in the country coming between April and June: financial news specialist Livemint (82.4 million visits, up 100% year-on-year), India Times (265.4 million, up 60%) and the Hindustan Times (170 million, up 45%).

Similarly month-on-month India.com (65.9 million visits, up 44%) topped the table for growth.

Two British newsbrands also featured in the fastest growing sites month-on-month. Visits to the website of Reach’s tabloid brand Express.co.uk were up 17% compared to February to reach 76.8 million, while visits to The Independent were up 12% to 109.5 million.

Among the ten biggest sites by number of visits in March, fastest-growing year-on-year was India Times. It was followed by The New York Times (666 million visits, up 11%) and Yahoo Finance (245.9 million, up 5%).

The remainder of the ten biggest sites slumped year-on-year, with Fox News seeing the sharpest decline (269.4 million visitors, down 18%), followed by aggregator MSN (676 million, down 11%).

However all top ten sites grew month-on-month. The biggest increase in visits was for India Times, followed by New York Times (up 10% month-on-month) and CNN (539.9 million, up 9%). UK newsbrands The Daily Mail (369.3 million, up 8% compared to February) and The Guardian (349.7 million, up 7%) also saw growth of more than 5% in their number of visits.

The BBC was again top of the table for visits (992.4 million) although it remained below the one billion visit mark for the second month in a row. It was followed by MSN, New York Times, CNN and Google News (375.6 million). The order of the top five is unchanged from last month.

February 2024

India Times was the fastest-growing top ten news website in the world in February, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

Visits to the Indian daily newspaper’s website were up 48% year-on-year to 234.5 million, possibly due to increased interest in news about the country given India’s upcoming general election in April.

It was followed by Yahoo Finance (241.4 million visits, up 18% year-on-year) and The New York Times (606.7 million visits, up 10%) which were second and third fastest growing among the ten biggest sites by number of visits, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

The Guardian made a smaller gain of 2% (327.4 million visits) and the rest of the top ten reported declines compared to February last year.

Microsoft news aggregator MSN (642.2 million visits, down 14% year-on-year) and Fox News (262.9 million, down 16%) were the two top ten sites to see double-digit drops.

Month-on-month all of the top ten sites except the India Times (up 3%) saw less traffic in February compared to January. Fox News (down 16%) and the Daily Mail’s website (343.6 million visits, down 10% month-on-month) saw the biggest falls.

Yahoo Finance (down 1% month-on-month) and New York Times (down 5%) also slumped compared to January despite growing year-on-year.

Fastest-growing year-on-year among the whole top 50 was again Newsweek (79.5 million visits, up 114%) which similarly saw strong growth in its home market of the US this month. Newsweek was followed by Indian financial newsbrand Livemint (71.8 million, up 90%) and Al Jazeera (53.4 million, up 55%), repeating the order of the fastest-growing sites year-on-year in January.

Month-on-month Newsweek (up 7% compared to January) was beaten by another Indian site, Indian Express (96.8 million, up 9% month-on-month). It was followed by GB News (55.2 million, up 4%) which entered the global top 50 for the first time last month.

The BBC was again top of the table for visits (963.4 million) although it fell below the one billion visit mark it has topped in recent months. It was followed by MSN (642.2 million), New York Times (606.7 million), CNN (497.7 million) and Google News (360.9 million). The order of the top five is unchanged from last month.

Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. 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. The sites in the list are based on Similarweb’s classification of news and media publishers, although Press Gazette refines the list to exclude some sites with a less news-based focus.

January 2024

CNN was the fastest-growing top 10 news website in the world month-on-month in January, according to Press Gazette’s updated ranking.

Visits to the US cable broadcaster’s site were up 7% to reach 537.2 million compared to December, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. It reverses last month’s pattern for CNN which was the only top ten sites in December to see visits down, falling 2% between November and December.

Second fastest-growing among the biggest ten sites by number of global visits was The Guardian (360.9 million, up 7% month-on-month), while Microsoft aggregator MSN (699.6 million, up 5%) was third. All top ten sites saw month-on-month growth.

Year-on-year all of the top ten sites saw audience drops however, The Guardian, New York Times (636.3 million visits) and Yahoo Finance saw comparatively small drops in visits of less than 1% compared to January 2023. MSN saw the biggest slump in traffic for the third month in a row (down 23% year-on-year), followed by Fox News (294.8 million visits) and CNN which were both down 16% year-on-year.

Fastest-growing year-on-year among the whole top 50 was again Newsweek (74.1 million visits, up 83%) – although its traffic was lower than December. Newsweek was followed by Indian financial newsbrand Livemint (77 million, up 76%) and Al Jazeera (57.8 million, up 56%).

Month-on-month UK-based news aggregator newsnow.co.uk was top for growth with visits up 40% compared to December (58.4 million visits). It was followed by GB News (53 million, up 21%) which entered the top 50 for the first time in 50th position, and Business Insider (107.7 million, up 21%).

The BBC remained top of the table for visits and was the only site to top the 1 billion visit-threshold as in past months (1.1 billion visits), followed by MSN, New York Times, CNN and Google News (393.4 million). The order of the top five is unchanged from last month.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog

This is part one of a series examining the challenges confronting the NATO alliance.

NATO has become a “bloated architecture” too dependent on American military power, former senior national security advisor Keith Kellogg told Fox News Digital.

As President Donald Trump pressures NATO allies to spend more on defense — ordering the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany and signaling possible cuts in Spain and Italy — a deeper concern is emerging inside the alliance: despite years of rising European defense budgets, NATO still depends heavily on American military power, from missile defense and intelligence to logistics and nuclear deterrence. 

The growing gap between political commitments and real military capability is now fueling calls for structural changes inside the alliance as NATO confronts mounting threats from Russia and instability in the Middle East.

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NATO’s imbalance is not theoretical — and it is not new, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told Fox News Digital, “I told the president… maybe you ought to talk about a tiered relationship with NATO,” Kellogg described conversations with Trump in his first term about the alliance’s future. “…we need to develop a new, for lack of a better term, a new NATO a new defensive alignment with  Europe.”

Kellogg added the alliance has expanded politically but not militarily — creating what he sees as a growing gap between commitments and real capability.

“You started with 12, and you went to 32, and in the process, I think you diluted the impact,” he argued, calling today’s NATO “a very bloated architecture.”

“They haven’t put the money into defense. Their defense industry and defense forces have atrophied. When you look at the Brits right now, they could barely deploy forces: they have two aircraft carriers, both under maintenance. Their brigades are like one out of six that work. And you just look at the capability, it’s just not there. So I think we need to realize that and say, well, we need something different,” Kellogg, who is the co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Foreign Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital.

But not everyone agrees the alliance is losing relevance.

“It has never been more relevant,” said John R. Deni, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College, who says NATO remains central to U.S. national security.

“The reason for that is twofold,” he said. “One, it’s our comparative advantage versus the Chinese and the Russians… they don’t have anything like this.”

“And the second reason… NATO underwrites the security and stability of our most important trade and investment relationship,” he added, referring to economic ties between North America and Europe.

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Dependence: Design or Weakness?

By around 2010, the United States accounted for roughly 65% to 70% of NATO defense spending, according to analysis provided by Barak Seener from the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank.

“They’ve always been dependent on the U.S.,” Kellogg said of the European allies.

“The allies overall rely upon one another for deterrence and defense by design,” Deni said, explaining that alliances exist to “pool their resources” and “aggregate their individual strengths.”

Deni pointed to ground forces as a clear example of what the U.S. gains from the alliance, noting that “there are far more allied mechanized infantry forces on the ground than there are Americans.”

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Still, he acknowledged that reliance has at times gone too far.

“In the past… it was fair to say that the European allies were overly reliant upon the Americans for conventional defense,” he said, pointing to the 2000s.

That, he said, was partly driven by U.S. priorities — as Washington pushed European allies to focus on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rather than territorial defense.

Seener describes NATO as “formally collective, but functionally asymmetric,” with the U.S. providing a disproportionate share of “high-end capabilities.”

That asymmetry is most visible in nuclear deterrence.

Seener said the U.S. provides the overwhelming majority of NATO’s nuclear arsenal — including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched systems and strategic bombers — meaning deterrence ultimately relies on the assumption of U.S. retaliation.

A NATO official told Fox News Digital that, “The U.S. nuclear deterrent cannot be replaced, but it is clear that Europe needs to step up. There’s no question. There needs to be a better balance when it comes to our defense and security. Both because we see the vital role the U.S. plays around the world and the resources that it demands, and also because it is only fair.”

“The good news,” the official added, “is that the Allies are doing exactly that. They are stepping up, working together — and with the U.S. — to ensure we collectively have what we need to deter and defend one billion people living across the Euro-Atlantic area.”

NATO LAUNCHES ARCTIC SECURITY PUSH AS TRUMP EYES GREENLAND TAKEOVER

The Systems NATO Cannot Replace

Beyond nuclear weapons, the dependence runs through the alliance’s operational backbone.

Seener pointed to U.S.-provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — as well as logistics and command systems — as essential to NATO operations.

“Without U.S. intelligence and surveillance, NATO loses situational awareness and early warning capabilities,” Seener said, adding, “So that means that Russia, for example, can attack Europe. And theoretically, if there’s no NATO and the U.S. is not involved, Europe would not be aware, or it would take it too long to be able to defend itself.”

Kellogg also says that much of Europe’s military capability falls short of top-tier systems.

“For the most part, their equipment, if you had to grade it A, B, C, D, E, F, they’re kind of like B players or C players,” he said. “It’s not the first line of work.”

He pointed to air and missile defense as a key gap, noting that while European countries rely on U.S.-made systems such as Patriot and THAAD, “they don’t have a system that’s comparable.”

Kellogg attributed that to years of underinvestment, saying European defense industries “have atrophied,” adding that the United States is also now “relearning that as well.”

TRUMP AFFIRMS US ‘WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR NATO,’ WHILE EXPRESSING DOUBTS ABOUT ALLIANCE

Deni said the picture today is more mixed.

“Alliance defense spending has been up… and has spiked far more after 2022,” he said, pointing to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 as a turning point.

But he cautioned that capability gains take time, noting that many improvements are still years away from full deployment.

Deni pointed to recent European purchases of U.S. systems as evidence of growing capability, noting that countries including Poland, Romania, Norway and Denmark are acquiring the F-35 fighter jet from the U.S.

“You can’t build an F-35 overnight,” he said, adding that many of these improvements will take years to fully materialize.

A NATO official told Fox News Digital the alliance “needs to move further and faster” to meet growing threats, pointing to new capability targets agreed by defense ministers in June 2025.

The official said priorities include air and missile defense, long-range weapons, logistics and large land forces, noting that while details remain classified, plans call for a fivefold increase in air and missile defense, “thousands more” armored vehicles and tanks, and “millions more” artillery shells. NATO also aims to double key enabling capabilities such as logistics, transportation and medical support.

The official added that allies are increasing investments in warships, aircraft, drones, long-range missiles, as well as space and cyber capabilities, while boosting readiness and modernizing command and control.

“These targets are now included in national plans,” the official said, adding that allies must demonstrate how they will meet them through sustained defense spending and capability development.

The NATO official also noted that European allies lead multinational forces across Central and Eastern Europe, while the U.S. and Canada serve as framework nations in Poland and Latvia, alongside ongoing air policing missions and NATO’s KFOR operation in Kosovo.

What happens if the U.S. is stretched?

Kellogg’s warning is direct: NATO’s deterrence depends on U.S. presence.

“The one you always have to worry about… is Russia,” Kellogg, who was Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia in 2025, said.

If U.S. forces are tied down elsewhere, NATO could face serious strain — particularly in areas like intelligence and logistics.

For Kellogg, the danger is delay. “We won’t know until it happens,” he said. “And then you won’t be able to respond to it.”

Deni, however, said the alliance remains a strategic asset — not a liability.

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The question, he suggests, is not whether NATO still works. It is whether allies can adapt fast enough to keep it working.

The Spain that knocked on Europe’s door 40 years ago was a country that had only just emerged from 40 years of dictatorship.

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Spain’s democratic transition, still fragile in some respects, found in European integration an institutional anchor, a guarantee that the freedoms it had won would not be reversed.

Felipe González, who had applied for membership in 1977 as leader of the Socialist opposition and was now governing as prime minister, saw it clearly: joining Europe was not just about economics. It was a statement of political identity. Spain was rejoining the community of democratic nations from which Francoism had excluded it.

The figures for that Spain of 1986 show how far back the starting point was: per capita income was around 7,300 euros, life expectancy was 76 and the population had yet to reach 38 million.

Exports accounted for barely 4.9% of GDP and infrastructure lagged decades behind European standards. Forty years on, per capita income is above 31,000 euros, life expectancy has reached 84 and exports have climbed to 34% of GDP.

None of these transformations can be separated from EU membership.

The early years: opening up and the shock

The initial stages of integration were not easy. Spain had to face the abrupt opening of its market to European competition, which triggered tensions across whole sectors of the economy, especially in industry and agriculture.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) profoundly reshaped the Spanish countryside, forcing through painful reconversions but also opening up new markets for Mediterranean products. Olive oil, fruit, wine: Spanish agriculture found in Europe a stage for expansion that had been unthinkable until then.

At the same time, European structural funds began to flow into a country that was in desperate need of them. The motorways that now link the Peninsula, the trains that criss-cross the country, the modernised ports, the telecommunications systems: all of this was built to a large extent with financial backing from Brussels.

In four decades, Spain has received more than 185 billion euros in European funds for infrastructure, employment, innovation and regional development. Without that injection, modernisation would have taken generations longer.

An unexpected symbol of those early years was the Erasmus programme, launched by the European Community in 1987. What began as a modest university exchange initiative gradually became the defining experience of a generation.

Spain became the country that receives the most Erasmus students in all of Europe, and more than 1.6 million Spaniards have taken part in the programme over these four decades. For many young people, Erasmus was not just a semester abroad: it was the first time they truly felt European.

Maastricht and the dream of the single currency

The year 1992 marked a turning point for all of Europe, and Spain was fully aware of its significance. The signing of the Treaty on European Union in Maastricht transformed the European Economic Community into the European Union proper and opened the way to the single currency.

For Spain, Maastricht also meant taking on economic convergence commitments that required deep reforms: deficit control, keeping inflation in check, budgetary discipline. It was the price of having a seat at the top table.

In parallel, 1995 brought another of the great achievements of the European project: the entry into force of the Schengen Agreement in Spain, alongside Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal.

For the first time in modern history, citizens could cross Europe’s internal borders without showing their passport. The Schengen area was not just a convenience for tourists; it was the physical embodiment of an idea: that in Europe, people’s freedom of movement was a right, not a privilege.

And then the euro arrived. On 1 January 1999, Spain became one of the eleven founding countries of the eurozone, adopting the single currency for financial and commercial transactions.

On 1 January 2002, notes and coins reached citizens’ pockets and the peseta disappeared for good. It was a moment full of emotion and also tinged with a certain melancholy: the peseta was being abandoned, a currency with centuries of history, but something bigger was being gained, the feeling of sharing an economic destiny with hundreds of millions of Europeans.

Fittingly, it was at a summit held in Madrid in December 1995 that European leaders finally agreed on the name of the new currency: the euro.

Institutional leadership on five occasions

Over these 40 years, Spain has not limited itself to benefiting from the European project: it has also helped to build it. Since 1986, the country has held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on five occasions, the most recent in the second half of 2023, under the motto “Europe, closer”, making it one of the member states most committed to driving the Union forward institutionally.

Three presidents of the European Parliament and nine European commissioners have been Spaniards over these four decades, a presence that reflects Spain’s growing weight in Europe’s political architecture.

Spain has also helped design some of the EU’s most important policies. It played a leading role in developing cohesion policy and in boosting the EU’s social dimension.

It was instrumental in including in the Amsterdam Treaty a sanctions mechanism for states that breached the Union’s fundamental values. And for decades it has played a distinctive role as a bridge between Europe and Ibero-America, drawing on its historical, cultural and linguistic ties with Latin America to enhance the EU’s external projection.

The great crisis and test of the euro

The years of the Great Recession brutally tested the strength of the European project and Spain’s resilience. The 2008 financial crisis triggered a devastating recession in the country: unemployment climbed above 26% in 2013, the construction sector collapsed and the financial system had to be partially bailed out with European funds.

The austerity policies imposed from Brussels fuelled deep social discontent and fed European scepticism among parts of the population that had borne the brunt of the cuts.

Even so, Spain did not abandon the euro or the European project. It opted for reform and recovery within the EU framework, and from 2014 it entered a growth cycle that was among the strongest in the eurozone. Painful as it was, the crisis also ended up showing that EU membership offered a safety net that would have been unimaginable alone.

The banking rescue coordinated by the European institutions, the financial solidarity mechanisms, access to capital markets underpinned by the European Central Bank: without Europe, the fallout could have been much more severe.

The pandemic and the NextGenerationEU funds

If the 2008 crisis was a test of endurance, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was something different: a demonstration that European solidarity could evolve into new, more ambitious forms.

For the first time in the history of European integration, the Union took on joint debt to finance the recovery of its member states. The NextGenerationEU funds made more than 140 billion euros in grants and loans available to Spain, the largest injection of European resources in the country’s history.

The pandemic was also a reminder that, when it works, European solidarity is an extraordinary asset. The coordination in vaccine purchasing, the European COVID certificate that made it possible to restore mobility, the joint response to an unprecedented threat: all this showed European citizens, Spaniards included, that the EU project was not just a market but also a community of shared destiny.

Forty years of transformation

The numbers tell a powerful story. Spanish exports of goods rose from 12.6 billion euros in 1986 to 141.5 billion in 2024. Real GDP has grown by more than 100% since accession. Life expectancy has increased by eight years over the past four decades.

The population has grown by more than 10 million people, largely thanks to immigration made possible by European prosperity. And more than 1.4 million young Spaniards have benefited from the European Youth Guarantee scheme to get into work.

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has marked the day on his x.com account, stressing that the European Union is Spaniards’ home and future, as well as their privilege and their responsibility.

The challenges of the next 40 years

The anniversary is not only a time for celebration. It is also a moment for honest reflection on what still remains to be built. Territorial inequalities between the autonomous communities remain significant.

The green transition, population ageing, digital transformation and migration flows pose challenges that no country can face alone. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reshaped Europe’s security map and forces Spain to rethink its contribution to common defence, as we have also seen with the US–Iran conflict and threats against European bases.

The new generations, who have grown up knowing no reality other than the European one, expect the Union to respond more effectively to these challenges. For them, Europe is not a historic achievement to be defended, but a starting point to be improved. That demand, far from being a threat to the project, is perhaps its best guarantee for the future.

Forty years on from that January night in 1986, European membership is now so taken for granted that it is hard to imagine Spain outside it.