While some say Facebook referral traffic has returned this year, others complain that the addition of AI-written summaries to Google search results has deeply impacted click-through rates to articles. Publishers have complained in recent years about falling referral traffic from Google and Facebook. The Times of Israel fell back out of the top 50 after its visits almost doubled in June to enter in 43rd place. Meanwhile the vast majority (44) saw fewer visits than they did a year earlier in July 2024. Some content remains free to all users regardless of whether they have hit the paywall, including select global breaking news stories. The BBC launched a dynamic paywall for users in the US at the end of June, charging $8.99 (£6.55) per month or $49.99 (£36.40) per year.

April 2024

The second-fastest annual growth was at climate site The Cooldown (25.5 million, up 562%) and the third-fastest was at Newsweek (172%), which was also the fastest-growing site among the top ten domains. Year-on-year, however, Athlon (athlonsports.com) saw the greatest growth in the top 50, drawing in 697% more visits in July 2024 than in July 2023. The company says the update has improved the accuracy of the data, particularly with regard to smaller websites.

• DNC tallied over $7M in grassroots fundraising last month
• The video was released by the FBI more than eight days after the 84-year-old disappeared from her home in Arizona.
• Seamus Culleton says he’s been held for 5 months in a “filthy” ICE detention camp despite a U.S. work permit and green card application.
• People meanwhile retook fifth place following its strong growth, with Yahoo Finance (154.4 million) falling into seventh.
• The fastest-growing top-ten site month-on-month was USA Today, followed by aggregator Google News (122.4 million, up 8.6%) and People.

The New York Times remains the most-visited news site in the US, followed Sweet Magnolias Season 3 Series Review by CNN (351.5 million) and Fox News (272.8 million). The AP’s consumer-facing website has seen “a lot of audience growth” since it relaunched in June 2023. It was followed by India Times (26.8 million visits, up 82% year-on-year), one of several Indian publishers to climb up the rankings in the past year. Other notable month-on-month gainers included Axios (32.3 million, up 33%), CNBC (113.2 million, up 30%), Newsweek (96.6 million, up 25%) and Zero Hedge (26.3 million, up 13%). The news agency was banned from presidential media briefings after refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and a legal dispute is continuing.

Telegram CEO vows to fight for app amid Russia pressure

The only sites to see visits decline month-on-month were the US website of the UK’s The Sun newspaper (37.1 million) and Athlon Sports (27.5 million), which both dropped 3%. All of the top-ten most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic growth when compared with June, according to figures from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. Among the top ten news sites by US traffic People magazine again saw the most year-on-year growth in August, having also been the fastest annual growers in April, May and June.

An ice volcano is a cone formed from thousands of icicles as a result of a gravity-fed fountain system. City council recently approved a budget appropriation of over $760,000 for onboarding expenses and salaries for the new firefighters. After a dry and disappointing January, the storm system is delivering much-needed snowfall to higher elevations. Michael Fantuzzo was arrested and is accused of stealing more than $246,000 from the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion to further evaluate additional temporary housing options for residents who were displaced by the Eaton Fire. In addition to Salt & Straw’s always-on classic flavors, this month’s rotating flavors are The Chocolatiers Series, which reimagines a box of chocolates as five distinct ice cream flavors.