An upfront shout to Richard Bagnall who first shared this data with me. If you want to be across all things measurement and insights, follow him on LinkedIn.
The Press Gazette has been publishing data about site visits to top 50 most English-language news sites. I’ve dropped them into a bubble chart because its easier to absorb than a chart.
Draw your own conclusions, but the three things that stand out to me are:
- First party data. Be that email or paid subscribers, knowing your customers and getting to them via something other than search is increasigly important.
- Traffic loss is not uniform. And where there’s difference, there is opportunity. Those running websites should not be running mitigation strategies, there is a win to be had.
- Brand is valuable but not a moat. Some big media brands have seen sizeable drops. Others are weathering the storm well. Brand recognition is meaningful and protective, but you need more than a big name.