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Huffington Post and Politico Lead Wave of Explosive Growth...(Free Republic in 5th Place)
PR Newswire ^ | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 | Comscore

Posted on 10/22/2008 9:16:52 AM PDT by kristinn

Edited on 10/22/2008 9:41:45 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

Political Blog Visitors Skew Older, Wealthier, More Male than Overall U.S. Internet Population

RESTON, Va., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of visitation to political blogs and news sites during the 2008 presidential election season, which showed strong gains at most sites compared to year ago.

HuffingtonPost.com led among a group of selected stand-alone political blogs and news sites with 4.5 million visitors in September, up 472 percent versus year ago, while Politico.com attracted 2.4 million visitors (up 344 percent) and DrudgeReport.com saw 2.1 million visitors (up 70 percent).

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

"With each new election cycle, the Internet is playing a more significant role in shaping the stories of the day that are so crucial in formulating public opinion on issues and candidates," said Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst at comScore. "That most mainstream news outlets now have their own political blogs is a testament to their increasing reach and influence. However, several independent blogs unaffiliated with larger media outlets paved the way in this space and are really beginning to enter the mainstream public consciousness with this current election cycle."

Selected Stand-Alone* Political Blogs & News Sites
September 2008 vs. September 2007
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)
Sep-2007 Sep-2008 % Change

Total Internet: Total Audience 181,858 189,468 4

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM 792 4,545 474
POLITICO.COM 532 2,362 344
DRUDGEREPORT.COM 1,215 2,059 70
REALCLEARPOLITICS.COM 192 1,129 489
FREEREPUBLIC.COM 1,022 987 -3
Capitol Advantage 794 959 21
DAILYKOS.COM 192 923 381
TOWNHALL.COM 407 884 117
NEWSBUSTERS.ORG 113 732 547
WORLDNETDAILY.COM 411 636 55
TALKINGPOINTSMEMO.COM 32 458 1,321
MICHELLEMALKIN.COM 103 247 140
REDSTATE.COM 38 235 514
CROOKSANDLIARS.COM 122 218 79
RAWSTORY.COM 219 212 -3
POLLSTER.COM N/A 194 N/A
MEDIAMATTERS.ORG 145 178 23
FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM N/A 169 N/A
CQPOLITICS.COM N/A 139 N/A
AMERICABLOG.COM N/A 104 N/A

* Stand-alone refers to blogs unaffiliated with larger news properties, such as the New York Times Caucus Blog or Time's "The Page".

Some additional findings include:
-- September represented the single biggest month on record for both HuffingtonPost.com and Politico.com since their respective launches.

-- Several sites dedicated to political poll-watching achieved notable gains. RealClearPolitics.com, which tracks composites of polls by state, attracted 1.1 million visitors in September, up 489 percent versus year ago. Two other polling-oriented sites, Pollster.com with 194,000 visitors and FiveThirtyEight.com with 169,000 visitors, also saw notable traffic in September.

-- The top conservative leaning blog, FreeRepublic.com, actually saw marginal declines versus year ago, though it still attracted nearly 1 million visitors in September. Other conservative blogs, such as Newsbusters.org (up 547 percent to 732,000 visitors), WorldNetDaily.com (up 55 percent to 636,000 visitors) and MichelleMalkin.com (up 140 percent to 247,000 visitors) saw strong gains.

Political Blog Visitors Skew Older and Wealthier Than Average Americans

Looking at the demographic profiles for the top three sites, HuffingtonPost.com, Politico.com and DrudgeReport.com, one can conclude that visitors to these sites tend to be older, wealthier, and more likely to be male than the average U.S. Internet user.

Of the three sites, Politico.com skewed the oldest with 23 percent of its visitors age 55 and older, while DrudgeReport.com skewed wealthiest, with 40 percent of its visitors earning at least $100,000 a year, and had the highest concentration of males at 57 percent. HuffingtonPost.com, the site with the largest audience, was the most similar of the three when compared to the overall U.S. Internet audience.

Demographic Profile of Visitors to Top 3 Political Blogs & News Sites

September 2008
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
% Composition of Unique Visitors

Total U.S. Huffington Internet Post Politico Drudge Report

Total Audience 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Persons - Age Persons: 12-17 10.5 5.4 3.6 2.9
Persons: 18-24 12.0 9.0 6.5 7.1
Persons: 25-34 15.4 15.6 14.9 15.1
Persons: 35-44 18.6 25.3 26.5 24.7
Persons: 45-54 17.5 20.7 19.7 23.3
Persons: 55-64 10.7 11.5 13.8 11.5
Persons: 65+ 5.9 7.1 9.5 9.5
Gender

Male 49.8 54.3 54.4 56.7
Female 50.2 45.7 45.6 43.3
Household Income (US)

Under $25K 10.0 5.4 3.6 2.2
$25,000 - 39,999 9.6 8.2 6.7 5.1
$40,000 - 59,999 24.8 20.2 19.4 19.2
$60,000 - 74,999 12.4 13.1 10.7 8.3
$75,000 - 99,999 17.4 19.8 26.9 25.0
$100,000 or more 25.7 33.4 32.6 40.2

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/boilerplate.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.


TOPICS: Free Republic; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; elections; freerepublic; huffpo; huffssp; internet; newmedia
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My apologies if the formating doesn't translate well.

Considering that Free Republic does no advertising and relies solely on donations, gets no sympathetic coverage in the media, it's amazing that FR is pretty much holding its own against better funded and better publicized sites.

Congratulations Jim and John!

1 posted on 10/22/2008 9:16:53 AM PDT by kristinn
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To: kristinn

I’m just glad we’re ahead of the DailyKOS a-holes.


2 posted on 10/22/2008 9:18:16 AM PDT by Slapshot68
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To: kristinn

Huff Post and Politico have actual battle plans with their readers...they never give up....they are ruthless...they produce...they are effective....they NEVER slam their own...they WIN.


3 posted on 10/22/2008 9:19:38 AM PDT by roses of sharon (When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will put him to flight (Isaiah 59:19)
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To: kristinn

damn..shame the top two are leftist orgs.


4 posted on 10/22/2008 9:20:01 AM PDT by wardaddy (McCain is hanging by his own campaign finance reform petard as we speak)
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To: kristinn

Drudge Report isn’t a blog. Can’t even say it is decidedly political. Also, there are just as many women at FR as men, right?


5 posted on 10/22/2008 9:20:42 AM PDT by madison10 (Prayer never hurts. Pray for the U.S.A.)
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To: kristinn

I heard Dennis Miller yesterday catch one of the Politico guys on his show say “The democrats need to.....” and then let slip “..we’re going to have to...”

Dennis asked him if he meant to say “they’re” instead and the Politico guy went ballistic at Dennis after realizing his slip.

Dennis remained calm and innocent and the Politico guy absolutely “did’th protest too much!”


6 posted on 10/22/2008 9:20:52 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: kristinn

Top five is pretty good.


7 posted on 10/22/2008 9:21:20 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: kristinn
I agree Kristinn! Because FR does not have advertising....I really do not consider it a 'blog' ;)

Thank you Jim and John!!! Fantastic work!

8 posted on 10/22/2008 9:21:26 AM PDT by BossLady (Say Hello to .....Jericho....)
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To: kristinn; Jim Robinson

Woo-Hoo! Atta-Boy Jim.


9 posted on 10/22/2008 9:23:08 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: kristinn

Capitol Advantage???


10 posted on 10/22/2008 9:26:26 AM PDT by King of Florida (A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.)
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To: kristinn
Nothing personal but this doesn't pass the smell test.

www.DrudgeReport.com is the boss of online hits.

11 posted on 10/22/2008 9:27:55 AM PDT by McGruff (Country First and I don't mean music.)
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To: kristinn

I’ll have to say that the hometown paper here (Gannett owned) reports no news, but does skew reporting because of racial bias. So my only means of information gathering is Free Republic and Drudge. It’s nice not being told what to believe. Thanks Free Republic and keep up the good work.


12 posted on 10/22/2008 9:28:14 AM PDT by RobertoinAL
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bump with congrats to Jim!


13 posted on 10/22/2008 9:37:41 AM PDT by eureka! (Hey mushy middle: Who is Barrack 0bama? Wait until you learn the answer. It's not pretty.)
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To: McGruff

“Nothing personal but this doesn’t pass the smell test.

www.DrudgeReport.com is the boss of online hits.”

This is measuring the actual amount of people that use the sites. What you’re talking about is page views. I could spend all day here doing nothing but clicking on threads, generating thousands of page views, but I’m still one only person.


14 posted on 10/22/2008 9:42:00 AM PDT by skipper18
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To: madison10

Agreed, I think folks from all political viewpoints use Drudge as a portal. It shouldn’t be included.


15 posted on 10/22/2008 9:46:26 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: kristinn

I notice the DUmmies aren’t on the list. LOL!


16 posted on 10/22/2008 9:51:55 AM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Lord please bless our nation with John McCain as president and Sarah Palin as Vice President! Amen.)
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To: King of Florida

Roll Call


17 posted on 10/22/2008 9:54:51 AM PDT by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: kristinn

bkmk


18 posted on 10/22/2008 9:56:10 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: kristinn

Yes, but half the page views are posters reading their own vanities.


19 posted on 10/22/2008 9:57:41 AM PDT by Defiant (Obama lies over the ocean,Obama lies over the sea,Obama lies over the ocean.Obama bin Lyin' to me.)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion
I notice the DUmmies aren’t on the list. LOL!

Yeah, I noticed that, too. How long before they spawn a conspiracy? In 3...2...1...

20 posted on 10/22/2008 10:10:58 AM PDT by randog (What the...?!)
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