Fox is Even a Bigger Winner Tuesday Than the GOP By Trouncing CNN, MSNBC

Fox had its biggest midterm election night ever, reports Brian Stelter of The New York Times, by clubbing its competitors by about 300 percent.

Fox pulled in 6.96 million viewers in prime time, while CNN averaged 2.42 million viewers, and MSNBC averaged 1.94 million viewers. That's 287 percent more than CNN and 358 percent more than MSNBC.

Stelter reported that the Nielsen Co. would not have comparison numbers against the broadcast networks until tomorrow, but early indications are that Fox would beat them, too.

Among viewers 25 to 54 years old, Fox News averaged 2.43 million in prime time, Stelter writes. CNN averaged 1.03 million among that demographic and MSNBC, 669,000.

Fox averaged 3.06 million viewers during the midterms in 2006, when there was a Democratic wave, Stelter reports. Fox has grown significantly in popularity since then.

CNN, by contrast, has shrunk — it had averaged 2.97 million viewers in the midterms in 2006. MSNBC’s prime-time averages were almost the same in 2006 and 2010.

(On the night of the presidential election in 2008, CNN averaged 12.3 million viewers in prime time, Fox averaged 9 million, and MSNBC averaged 5.9 million.)

The cable news channels’ ratings were inflated all day because of the election, but Fox ratings were inflated more than the others. Fox averaged 3.02 million viewers from 6 a.m. Tuesday to 3 a.m. Wednesday.

No. 1 News Site? MSNBC.COM Once Again With 40 Million Unique Visitors in April

Editor & Publisher released its monthly list of top news websites today and once again MSNBC.com is on top with more than 40 million unique visitors in April.

MSNBC.com's numbers represented a 24 percent increase over its numbers in the same period last year, according to Nielsen Online.

Meanwhile, NYTimes.com, slipped from the top 5 to sixth by registering 16.5 million unique. a decline from last April of 8 percent. The New York Times is disputing the Nielsen numbers, noting its own internal data show an upward trend in viewership.

Here are the top 30 news websites with their April unique visitors and percent change, according to the survey.

MSNBC Digital Network -- 40,098,000 -- 24%
Yahoo! News -- 39,198,000 -- 14%
CNN Digital Network -- 37,225,000 -- 11%
AOL News -- 23,388,000 -- 1%
Fox News Digital Network -- 18,110,000 -- 67%

NYTimes.com -- 16,546,000 -- (-8%)
Tribune Newspapers -- 15,663,000 -- 16%
Google News -- 12,933,000 -- 20%
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division -- 12,520,000 -- (-5%)
USATODAY.com -- 11,987,000 -- 12%

ABCNEWS Digital Network -- 11,577,000 -- (-8%)
CBS News Digital Network -- 10,790,000 -- 9%
washingtonpost.com -- 10,232,000 -- 8%
McClatchy Newspaper Network -- 9,675,000 -- 15%
BBC -- 9,060,000 -- 63%

TheHuffingtonPost.com -- 8,885,000 -- 157%
WorldNow -- 8,820,000 -- 14%
NBC Local Media -- 8,720,000 -- N/A
Advance Internet -- 7,845,000 -- 30%
Hearst Newspapers Digital -- 7,245,000 -- (-6%)

Topix -- 6,597,000 -- 8%
MediaNews Group Newspapers -- 6,448,000 -- 0%
Boston.com -- 5,888,000 -- 33%
Cox Newspapers -- 5,705,000 -- (-1%)
MailOnline -- 5,160,000 -- 70%

Daily News Online Edition -- 5,033,000 -- 73%
The Slate Group Websites -- 4,418,000 -- N/A
New York Post Holdings -- 4,403,000 -- 27%
NPR -- 4,325,000 -- 1%
Belo Television -- 4,200,000 -- (-7%)

News Cycle had a good April as well, seeing an increase in unique visitors of 35.8 percent over its March figures, according to Google Analytics. Comparisons to the previous year are not possible as the site was launched in August.

Huffington Post Growth Slows, MSNBC.com on Top, Nielsen Online Reveals

The Huffington Post's rate of growth eased up in March, according to Editor & Publisher as it released new numbers from Nielsen Online.

The survey, which tracks the top 30 global news/current events sites, showed that Huffington Post's monthly unique viewers increased 27 percent year-over-year to 6.7 million in March. The site had reported that in February a monthly increase of 137 percent (year-over-year) to 8.8 million users, Editor & Publisher reported.

Jennifer Saba of Editor & Publisher reports:

MSNBC topped the list again in March with a 9% growth in monthly uniques to 39.9 million compared to the same month in 2008. In February more than 41 million unique users visited that site.

Growth at the NYTimes.com remains level with an increase of 7% year-over-year in March to 20 million uniques. About the same amount of people -- roughly 20 million -- visited the NYTimes.com in February.

New York's Daily News reported the biggest percentage gain of the list with an increase of 71% (year-over-year) to 5.6 million uniques.

Google News climbed the ranks in March to the No. 8 position (the site was No. 11 in February) with an 18% growth in uniques compared to March 2008.

News Cycle once again failed to make the list. But its unique visitors grew 7.2 percent in March over its February numbers, according to StatCounter.com. Year-over-year comparisons are irrelevant for News Cycle because the site started in 2008.

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.

CNN Wins on Day One, Nielsen Says

The Associated Press reports that CNN won the day yesterday:

An estimated 21.4 million viewers watched Michelle Obama's speech about her husband during the 10 p.m. hour Monday on either ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel or MSNBC, Nielsen said. Add in BET and TV One, networks covering the convention for the first time, and the viewership reached 22.3 million. No immediate estimate was available for PBS or CNBC.

The six broadcast or news networks recorded 18.4 million viewers for the first night in 2004, Nielsen said.

NBC led the way this year with 4.9 million viewers, followed by CNN's 4.3 million. ABC had 3.8 million, CBS had 3.5 million, Fox News Channel had 2.9 million and MSNBC had 2.1 million.

What's odd is that MSNBC is in last place but NBC is in first, despite the multiple crossover in talent and reports.