Nielsen releases August data for newspaper Web sites

Two-thirds of the top 30 newspaper Web sites posted year-over-year gains last month, according to an Editor & Publisher report.

August 2009 Top 10:

NYTimes.com — 17,183,000 — (-13%)
washingtonpost.com — 11,681,000 — 4%
Wall Street Journal Online — 10,867,000 — 42%
USATODAY.com — 9,787,000 — (-6%)
LA Times — 9,245,000 — 3%

Daily News Online Edition — 8,573,000 — 90%
Boston.com — 4,981,000 — 11%
New York Post — 4,843,000 — 46%
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle — 4,269,000 — (-5%)
Chicago Tribune — 3,910,000 — (-17%)

Compare this to the previous month.

July 2009 Top 10:

NYTimes.com — 14,277,000 — (-27%)
washingtonpost.com — 11,565,000 — 29%
USATODAY.com — 9,761,000 — (-6%)
Daily News Online Edition — 9,131,000 — 112%
LA Times — 8,938,000 — 2%

Wall Street Journal Online — 8,341,000 — (-4%)
New York Post — 6,535,000 — 32%
Boston.com — 5,274,000 — 8%
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle — 5,092,000 — 13%
Chicago Tribune — 4,442,000 — 14%

So the top 10 stayed the same, with some non-earth shattering shake-ups in the top five. And though six in the top 10 posted year-over-year gains, only four of these sites attracted more unique views in August than in July.

But, much as economists adjust for inflation, the newspaper industry should adjust for August’s lack of morbidly popular celebrity news. This way, even these minor drops are less severe given that Obama was on vacation and celebrities decided, for the most part, to stay alive.