Yesterday, TheRighting released traffic analysis for conservative media, showing their readerships have generally declined more since 2020 than liberal media organs like the New York Times and CNN. 2020 was a good year for the media because of the pandemic and the George Floyd riots. That explains why media readerships in general are lower now than in 2020. But why are conservative web sites losing viewers even faster than liberal ones? Conservatives may be experiencing political fatigue and avoiding bad news. It is more enjoyable to be a progressive reading the news as America is transformed in a more left-leaning direction, than it is to be a conservative seeing the world you once knew slowly disappear. Among conservative outlets, only the Daily Signal and Newsmax showed recent increases in readership.
But conservatives should keep reading the news, so they can be informed enough to fight back in the political arena, and also so they be on guard about government policies that may affect their livelihoods, or reduce the value of their investments. Reading the news regularly can help you decide where to live or move, what stocks to buy or sell, whether to buy or rent, and whether to go into one line of business or another.
The Righting’s monthly report, “which will be released monthly throughout 2024, examines traffic to 15 right wing news websites from 2020 and contrasts it with their 2024 traffic. TheRighting will also run a similar comparison to the three mainstream news brands it has followed regularly since 2019: CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.”
Its most recent report contains the following observations:
TheRighting found significant audience erosion at every news website except one it monitored in the four-year period from 2020 to 2024. The three largest news websites had the smallest audience declines: CNN (-20%), The New York Times (-22%), Fox News (-24%). Almost every right wing news website suffered audience decreases of at least 50%, with three outlets – Breitbart, Townhall and the Washington Free Beacon – each posting drops of 87%. Only Newsmax, among all the news websites surveyed by TheRighting, generated an audience increase (+37%) from January 2020 to January 2024.
“Going forward throughout this critical year, I expect similar or even sharper monthly losses in election year traffic from 2020 to 2024 for a variety of reasons,” said Howard Polskin. “These include consumer news avoidance and its cousin crisis fatigue, as well as the rise of alternative news sources.
“It’s important to note that 2020 was a banner year for traffic because it was the most consequential year in American history this century. Major 2020 events included the pandemic, the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, and the contentious battle for the presidency between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Unless some unfathomable incident occurs, it’s hard to see how 2024 will come close to producing the same audience levels for most news brands from four years ago.”
Only two prominent right wing news websites posted year-over-year (YOY) traffic increases, according to TheRighting’s exclusive analysis of mobile and desktop traffic based on Comscore data for January 2024. This marks the fifth month in a row of declining traffic for the majority of conservative news websites that TheRighting follows…
YOY January 2024 traffic also sagged at the three mainstream news websites that TheRighting tracks on a monthly basis. The Washington Post registered the smallest drop (-12%), followed by The New York Times (-13%) and CNN.com (-20).
“The January 2024 traffic declines were especially surprising because of the dramatic news unfolding during the month that I assumed would attract bigger audiences on both sides of the aisle,” said Polskin. “These included the $83 million defamation penalty against Donald Trump, the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, and the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay.”
Some liberal media organs have lost enough traffic since 2020 to become unprofitable, such as the Washington Post. The left-wing publication Vice is laying off its staff.
TheRighting’s Report is based on Comscore data. We wonder whether that data is wrong for the Daily Wire, whose traffic is much higher according to Similarweb, which shows that the Daily Wire’s traffic has only fallen modestly, and remains higher than liberal newspapers like the Baltimore Sun and the Boston Globe. The Comscore data also seems a bit low for the Washington Times.
