The 50 most popular newspaper blogs
Every month, Editor and Publisher publishes a list of the most visited newspaper websites based on unique visitors. But while this gives you an idea of the overall traffic of a newspaper site, I was interested in diving in and determining the success each of these newspapers has had with the blogging medium. After all, the New York Times alone has more than 60 blogs, and most of the top 10 most-visited newspapers have at least 20 blogs under their domains. But does high web traffic indicate a newspaper is adept at blogging?
To determine this, I combed through the hundreds of blogs at the top newspaper sites and calculated each of their Technorati rankings. A Technorati ranking is based on the number of inbound links from separate blogs in a six-month period, and is a decent indicator of a blog’s popularity. Once I determined the rankings, I ordered them from popular to least popular. Below, you will find the 50 most popular newspaper blogs.
Of all the newspapers surveyed, the New York Times had the most blogs make the list, with 22. The LA Times came in second, with nine. Of those blogs that made the list, eight were in the top 100 most popular blogs on the internet, while all 50 blogs made it into the top 5,000.
Below are the top 50. If you feel that I’ve missed a blog, please let me know in the comments section.
5/7/09 The list has been updated to reflect blogs I missed
1. The Big Picture
Rank: 5
2. The Caucus
Rank: 36
3. Bits Blog
Rank: 41
4. Paul Krugman
Rank: 55
5. City Room
Rank: 63
6. Freakonomics
Rank: 71
7. Ben Smith’s blog
Rank: 77
8. Washington Wire
Rank: 89
9. Deal Book
Rank: 144
10. Top of the Ticket
Rank: 158
11. LA Now
Rank: 318
12. The Swamp
Rank: 676
13. The Lede
Rank: 700
14. Law Blog
Rank: Rank: 750
15. Technology
Rank: 787
16. Well
Rank: 899
17. Green Inc.
Rank: 1,095
18. Arts Beat
Rank: 1,200
19. Economix
Rank: 1,256
20. On Deadline
Rank: 1,276
21. Security Fix
Rank: 1,281
22. The Dish Rag
Rank: 1,324
23. Abstract City
Rank: 1,422
24. Real Time Economics
Rank: 1,476
25. Room for Debate
Rank: 1,597
26. The Moment
Rank: 1,623
27. Dot Earth
Rank: 1,709
28. Health Blog
Rank: 1,769
29. The Juggle
Rank: 1,911
30. Michael Calderone
Rank: 1,978
31. The Plum Line
Rank: 1,996
32. On Faith
Rank: 2,046
33. Pop & Hiss
Rank: 2,154
34. Show Tracker
Rank: 2,290
35. Hero Complex
Rank: 2,320
36. DC Sports Blog
Rank: 2,338
37. Bitten
Rank: 2,424
38. Jacket Copy
Rank: 2,894
39. Deal Journal
Rank: 2,913
40. Environmental Capital
Rank: 3,409
41. Washington Post Investigations
Rank: 3,062
42. Parenting
Rank: 3,119
43. Post Partisan
Rank: 3,329
44. Paper Cuts
Rank: 3,370
45. Fabulous Forum
Rank: 3,402
46. Pogue’s Posts
Rank: 3,581
47. Think Again
Rank: 3,722
48. Opinionator
Rank: 3,750
49. Domestic Disturbances
Rank: 3,778
50. Pop Candy
Rank: 3,940
I’ve always loved the big picture: definitely deserves the number 1 spot.
I looked at most of the links — and liked some a lot. But, at least with respect to political links, the list seems tremendously slated toward liberal articles. Have you looked at conservative blogs? Or how about some of the Fox News or Wall Street Journal blogs?
Simon already included WSJ blogs. here are the Top 10 by Technorati Authority:
2232 http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire
1422 http://blogs.wsj.com/law
1047 http://blogs.wsj.com/economics
911 http://blogs.wsj.com/health
905 http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle
696 http://blogs.wsj.com/deals
628 http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital
536 http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech
477 http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
332 http://blogs.wsj.com/runway
What’s interesting is that almost all of these are from 5 major newspapers:
NY Times
LA Times
Washington Post
Wall Street Journal
USA Today
Should we conclude that these are the only media organizations that show any signs of transforming themselves? Maybe.
The news sites in the top 50 here not from one of those 5 organizations:
9756 http://www.boston.com/bigpicture
2395 http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith
888 http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone
1476 http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog
1143 http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog
Not surprisingly, I read several of these blogs before their respective newspaper’s content. Thanks for the list.
Two problems with your ranking.
First of all, your most popular blog is not a New York Times blog. It’s a Boston.com (Boston Globe) blog. Oddly, it’s also first on your list of blogs not from the top 5 news organizations. How could you not have noticed that?
Secondly, Technorati is not a good way of measuring the popularity of blogs. At best it could be said to measure the popularity of blogs WITHIN THE BLOGOSPHERE. That is not even close to the same thing as measuring the readership of a blog in the real world. The folks at Technorati themselves caution against interpreting their numbers the way you are.
Also, the papers you noted are all national publications, with the possible exception of the LA Times. Of course they get more links than reqional or smaller papers. That’s “the sky is blue” kind of analysis.
Tampa Jim, please show me where I ever claimed in my piece that The Big Picture is a New York Times blog. I don’t.
As for Technorati rankings, I explain my methodology, never once do I say that “these blogs have the most traffic.” I never claim that these are the blogs with the highest readerships.
You are, quite frankly, arguing with a straw man.
Giving out awards is a great way to get links from the self-important, isn’t it? In fact, I came here from a Ben Smith link and I’m sure more will follow. As for why he’d be #6, it’s certainly not for his accuracy: there’s an example of just one of his lies at my name’s link.
As for the NYT blogs, my comments are rarely approved, and sometimes they aren’t approved at the LAT’s blogs or they wait 24 hours before approving them in order to try to fool as many people as possible. Perhaps that’s good for a few points off.
These #s are highly suspect. I think there are blogs at sfgate.com that get way more traffic than Newsweek’s “On Faith” or the La Times’ book blog. Something is fishy here.
I didn’t see Dan Froomkin’s “White House Watch” at the Washingtonpost online listed here.
His stuff is consistently terrific!
I have a couple of modest little blogs at The Tuscaloosa News, a New York Times-owned paper in Alabama. I am not allowed to have a site meter on it and don’t trust the hosts record of daily hits. This may be a stupid question, but how can I find out what my actual traffic is?