Posted on 07/01/2006 6:25:43 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Web Traffic to Washington Times, Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh.com Is Down; Is Era of Right-Wing Site Popularity Over?
6/29/2006 10:52:00 AM
To: National Desk
Contact: David Rothstein of IPD Group, 202-318-8905 or Web: http://www.ipdgroup.com/feedback.php
WASHINGTON, June 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was issued today by U.S. Politics Today, published by the Washington, D.C.-based IPD Group:
An odd thing seems to have happened to mighty right-wing talking head media juggernaut. They are still talking, but fewer people seem to be listening -- at least on the Internet.
Alexa.com -- http://alexa.com -- which is owned and operated by Amazon.com, tracks online usage for all Web sites, large and small. At Alexa.com, you can check a site's activity up to the minute, or follow its trail back for many years.
At U.S. Politics Today, we thought it might be interesting to see how the right-wing media machine was doing. Not well, it turns out.
During the past three months, for instance, http://rushlimbaugh.com traffic ranking has declined 18 percent. He still huffs and puffs away daily on radio, but advertisers might want to double check the size of his audience. If the bottom has dropped out on him online, it likely has had a similar trend line with his radio show.
Even Fox News, that gold standard of right-wing media, is down 13 percent. Here are the numbers: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=www.foxnews.com
Ann Coulter is coining money by attacking widows and orphans -- a new game for her since she's run out of Democrats, living and dead, to defame and verbally pillage. You would think with all of the attention the promotion of her new book has given her would raise visitor numbers at her Web site, http://anncoulter.com. Nope. Traffic there is down 10 percent.
The audience chart reversal seems to be common across the entire right-wing side of the Internet viewing board. Billoreilly.com -- http://billoreilly.com -- has dropped 40 percent in the past three months. Townhall.com -- http://townhall.com -- that once popular center for right-wing news and commentary, has fallen by 24 percent. The Washington Times Web site is down by 27 percent. And Matt Drudge, once the hottest right-wing name in Internet sites? Alexa.com says http://drudgereport.com is down 21 percent.
Could it be that Internet users are getting tired of political sites in general? Maybe so. But http://moveon.org is up 13 percent in the same period.
President Bush's fall from grace has been well documented by poll-after-poll. The unpopularity of Congress may not be at historic lows, but those 20-something level of support numbers can't be comforting to those who manage things on Capitol Hill.
It seems logical that with enthusiasm draining from the right- wing movement that put the president and the current Congress in place, the media chorus that has lavished praise on them all these many years would be affected by the change in fortune.
And so it seems, looking at the Alexa.com numbers -- if they are to be believed. Those graph lines may not directly parallel the decline in GOP poll numbers, but they are all heading in the same direction -- down.
Free Republic Vs. Daily Kos
Free Republic Vs. Moveon.org
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Look at the spikes during the "Rove Is Getting Indicted" time period.
Seems to me that once you remove those spikes, their traffic would probably follow the same general pattern as conservative sites.
Thats because we go to that site called free republic instead of drudge.
Hey, it's ok with me if some lib wants to believe we are losing steam. Helps keep us under the radar.
Let the idea get some legs. Then, come elections, they will be in for a bigger surprise.
I still go to all of them.
Plus, some of us have to work for a living!!
That or its a thing called summer.
I'd wager ALL internet activity reduces during the nice summer days.
Jeez, are these guys desperate or what? What will happen to them when conservatives begin to take over more power than we already have.
The graphs you posted show that conservative websites have consistant visitors, while the liberal ones spike, attracting shorter attention span type people.
This is about hits on their websites???
I'll betcha Rush radio rating, FNC TV ratings and Ann's sold books are way higher then the libs
The only thing those charts tells me is that conservatives go outside when the weather gets warmer.
IT'S SUMMERTIME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Who has time to sit at the computer all day, except liberals?
They are not. Alexa is now routinely removed as spyware by many anti-viral and anti-spyware programs.
Don't expect the media to understand transients and anomolies. I do, however, see that Kos has more average traffic than FR; wonder how long that'll last now that their hero has been outed as a paid political flack.
Wait until the election time you will see a lot more traffic. I think this just shows a lot of conservatives trust the current administration that is in place.
I believe Alexa tracks the web usage of those using the Alexa software, not ALL web usage. It is thus not a statistically valid measure.
From January to June, in the chart above, does anyone see where http://moveon.org is up 13 percent in any period?
What is this author talking about?
Am I still logged in?
It looks to me like "IPD Group" is a lefty concern.....this is their News/Homepage:
http://uspolitics.einnews.com/
oops, forget I said that :-)
They both seem to follow the same pattern.
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