CNN Digital remained the top dog in digital news in May 2018, reaching the largest U.S. audience across a variety of measurements including multiplatform visitors, mobile visitors, video starts, millennial reach and social. May 2018 also marked the 24th month of being No.1 in multiplatform unique visitors, video and social.
- CNN: 126 million unique visitors
- The New York Times Brand – 93 million unique visitors
- FoxNews.com – 86 million unique visitors
- WashingtonPost.com – 84 million unique visitors
- CBSNews.com – 67 million unique visitors
- USAToday.com – 61 million unique visitors
Source: comScore Multiplatform Media Metrix, May 2018. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors in the news/information category.
CNN was also No. 1 in digital video starts in May, for the 36th straight month.
- CNN: 332 million desktop video starts
- Dailymail.co.uk – 147 million starts
- MSN News – 133 million starts
- FoxNews.com – 120 million starts
- Yahoo News – 86 million starts
- CBSNews.com – 49 million starts
Source: comScore Multiplatform Video Media Metrix, May 2018. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors in the news/information category. **Numbers above reflect desktop video starts. Multiplatform (desktop + mobile) video starts will be released by comScore at a later date.**
CNN’s mobile reach was 101 million mobile unique visitors—27 million more mobile users than second-place New York Times and 34 million more than third-place Washington Post.
- CNN: 101 million mobile unique visitors
- The New York Times Brand – 74 million mobile unique visitors
- WashingtonPost.com – 67 million mobile unique visitors
- FoxNews.com – 65 million mobile unique visitors
- CBSNews.com – 52 million mobile unique visitors
- BuzzFeed.com – 50 million mobile unique visitors
Source: comScore Mobile Metrix, May 2018. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors in the news/information category.
CNN continued its 2018 streak in May as the go-to news outlet in millennial users, meaning adults 18-34.
- CNN: 35 million millennial unique multiplatform visitors
- BuzzFeed – 29 million millennial unique visitors
- HuffPost – 22 million millennial unique visitors
- WashingtonPost.com – 21 million millennial unique visitors
- USAToday.com – 16 million millennial unique visitors
- FoxNews.com– 15 millennial unique visitors
Source: comScore Multiplatform Media Metrix, May 2018. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors in the news/information category; persons: 18-34.
CNN was also the No. 1 source for political news in May. The CNN Politics team defeated all competitors in breaking news and analysis for more than three years, dating back to March 2015. The outlet attracted 41 million multiplatform unique visitors in May – +38 percent growth vs. the prior year.
- CNN Politics: 41 million multiplatform unique visitors
- Politico.com – 32 million unique visitors
- TheHill.com – 26 million unique visitors
- Fox News Politics – 14 million unique visitors
- HuffPost Politics – 12 million unique visitors
- MSNBC – 11 million unique visitors
Source: comScore Multiplatform Media Metrix, May 2018; Based on news/information – politics category. CNN Politics has been No. 1 in the competitive rank in video and multiplatform views since March 2015.
- CNN has ranked as the No. 1 social news outlet in the U.S. for more than four years.
- No. 1 news brand on Facebook with 47.4 million Facebook fans across CNN’s main accounts (CNN and CNN International), and No. 1 on Twitter with 95.4 million followers across its accounts (@CNN and @CNNBRK). It’s also No. 1 on Instagram with 4.7 million followers. (CNN-om;u)
Sources: Shareablee, May 2018. Brands included in comparison are CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, HuffPost, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BBC News, BuzzFeed, ABC News, NPR, Mashable, The Daily Mail, NowThis, AJ+, Al Jazeera English, NBC News, CBS News, HLN and Yahoo News. Facebook main accounts for CNN are CNN and CNN International. Twitter main accounts for CNN are @CNN and @CNNBRK. Instagram for CNN includes flagship account only.
While CNN touts its win in the aforementioned categories, FoxNews.com managed to defeat CNN.com in page views for the second straight month, per comScore data from May.
FoxNews.com topped CNN.com in the total number of page views for the second consecutive month, according to May 2018 comScore data. Averaging 1.377 billion multiplatform page views, FoxNews.com had an 8 million views advantage over CNN.com (1.369 billion).
In addition to winning April and May, FoxNews.com also beat CNN.com in total page views this past January.
Up 28 percent year over year in total page views, FoxNews.com also beat NewYorkTimes.com for the fifth consecutive month and the WashingtonPost.com for the ninth consecutive month in total views by 136 million and 702 million, respectively. CNN.com, on the other hand, was -11 percent over the same time period.
FoxNews.com also ranked No. 3 overall in unique users, ahead of WashingtonPost.com, as a top online news destination with 86 million unique users in May, placing just after CNN.com and the NewYorkTimes.com.
In multiplatform total minutes, FoxNews.com ranked No. 2 among digital news outlets with 2.6 billion total minutes, just behind Yahoo News, beating CNN.com by 210 million. Additionally, FoxNews.com was the only publisher in the top four that experienced positive growth in multiplatform total minutes spent year over year.