Huffington Post Grew the Most in January, Neilsen Online Reveals

Nielsen Online has released its January 2009 list of the 30 most popular news sites by unique visitors, Jennifer Saba of Editor and Publisher is reporting. MSNBC has a sizable lead in the top slot, followed by CNN and Yahoo! News, while The Huffington Post had the largest percentage gain for the month -- a whopping 152 percent. The New York Times was the top newspaper on the list with 21.5 million unique viewers in the month.

Here is the top 30 sites:

Site/Total Unique Users Users in January/Increase or Decrease

MSNBC Digital Network -- 44,844,000 -- 27%
CNN Digital Network -- 41,655,000 -- 17%
Yahoo! News -- 40,499,000 -- 12%
AOL News -- 23,051,000 -- (-3%)
NYTimes.com -- 21,584,000 -- 5%

Tribune Newspapers -- 17,917,000 -- 29%
Fox News Digital Network -- 15,591,000 -- 45%
Google News -- 13,796,000 -- 15%
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division -- 13,758,000 -- 2%
CBS News Digital Network -- 13,223,000 -- 42%

ABCNEWS Digital Network -- 12,771,000 -- (-3%)
washingtonpost.com -- 11,148,000 -- 13%
USATODAY.com -- 10,588,000 -- (-14%)
BBC -- 9,847,000 -- 74%
McClatchy Newspaper Network -- 9,779,000 -- 15%

WorldNow -- 9,773,000 -- (-5%)
Boston.com -- 8,535,000 -- 64%
Advance Internet -- 7,935,000 -- 23%
Hearst Newspapers Digital -- 7,822,000 -- (-1%)
N.Y. Daily News Online Edition -- 7,775,000 -- 150%

MediaNews Group Newspapers -- 7,774,000 -- 43%
TheHuffingtonPost.com -- 7,357,000 -- 152%
Topix -- 7,048,000 -- (-1%)
Cox Newspapers -- 5,940,000 -- 26%
Slate -- 5,655,000 -- 0%

NBC Local Media -- 5,576,000 -- N/A
Gannett Broadcasting -- 5,504,000 -- 1%
Telegraph -- 5,104,000 -- 139%
New York Post Holdings -- 4,992,000 -- 7%
NPR -- 4,903,000 -- 16%

News Cycle was just a bit outside for this list.