Major US news websites have seen sharp declines in audience numbers. Traffic to the top 10 sites dropped by nearly a third in two years. Search referrals and monthly visits both fell significantly.
Sharp declines in digital traffic are reshaping the US news landscape, with the ten largest news websites losing nearly a third of their combined audience since 2024. This drop in monthly visits and organic search referrals is forcing publishers and editorial teams to rethink their strategies for audience growth, monetization, and reliance on search platforms.
According to Press Gazette’s analysis of monthly visits from July 2023 to July 2026, the ten biggest US newsbrands saw their combined traffic fall 32% compared to July 2024, and 18% compared to three years ago. Over the past year alone, these sites lost 15% of their audience. The trend is even more pronounced across the top 50 US news sites, where monthly visits dropped 37% since July 2024, falling from a peak of 4.9 billion to 3.1 billion in July 2026.
While most major sites experienced declines, four of the top ten managed to grow their traffic over three years. The New York Times saw a slight increase of 0.48% to 406.3 million visits. People rose 10% to 126.6 million, the BBC gained 3% to 96.9 million, and Substack surged 179% to 95.9 million visits. Substack’s figures include all publications and individuals hosted on its platform with substack.com URLs. The platform crossed three million paid subscriptions in February 2024 and reached five million by March 2025.
Sites ranked 11th to 20th also faced steep declines, with combined traffic down 36% compared to two years ago and 20% over three years. Only three brands in this group grew compared to 2023: the Associated Press, which relaunched its consumer site in June 2023 and saw a record 2024, was up 28% year-on-year but still 41% below its July 2024 peak. The Guardian increased US visits by 14% to 71.8 million, and The Wall Street Journal rose 11% to 67.6 million. USA Today’s traffic spiked to 203.5 million in November 2024 before dropping to 89.9 million by July 2026.
Search Traffic Trends
Organic search referrals have also dropped sharply. Among the top ten newsbrands, collective search traffic fell 31% over two years and 16% in the past year. Seven of the ten saw search traffic peak in 2024 before declining. CNN experienced the largest drop, with organic search visits down 61% from 124.4 million to 48.4 million. The New York Post’s search traffic halved to 25.5 million. Substack’s search referrals grew nearly 300% over three years, while Yahoo Finance saw modest annual growth, reaching 35.9 million visits from search.
For sites ranked 11th to 20th, only The Guardian, Yahoo News, and The Wall Street Journal had more search traffic in July 2026 than in July 2023. However, all ten brands in this group were down compared to 2024, and only Yahoo News grew its search traffic in the past year. Overall, this group’s search referrals dropped 46% compared to 2024 and 15% compared to 2023.
Referral Mix and AI Impact
Across the top 50 US news sites, organic search made up a slightly smaller share of total referrals, averaging 30% in July 2026 compared to 31% in July 2023 and 32% in 2024 and 2025. Direct traffic increased as a percentage of total visits at 11 of the top 20 sites, reflecting publisher efforts to reduce dependence on search. The overall referral mix has not changed drastically for most publishers.
Traffic from generative AI platforms remains minimal, averaging just 0.4% across the 50 largest sites. At The New York Times, AI-driven referrals were 0.1% last year and 0.2% in July 2026. Only Reuters (1.7%) and The Hill (1.1%) saw more than 1% of their traffic come from platforms like ChatGPT and Claude.
These figures highlight the ongoing challenges for US news publishers as they adapt to shifting audience behaviors, changes in search algorithms, and the slow emergence of AI-driven referrals. The data is based on the 50 largest news websites as of July 2026, meaning some previously larger sites that lost more traffic may have dropped off the list.
For further details and monthly tracking, see the full analysis at Press Gazette (source).
Substack, founded in 2017, has rapidly expanded its presence in the US digital publishing market. The platform surpassed three million paid subscriptions in February 2024 and reached five million by March 2025, reflecting strong growth among independent writers and publications. Substack’s model allows creators to monetize directly through subscriptions, contributing to its rising traffic and influence among the top US news sites.
