An Editor & Publisher exclusive reveals new data from Nielsen Online showing that two-thirds of the top newspaper websites had year-on-year declines in unique users. These difficulties can be accounted for by considering the surge in traffic from the US presidential campaign and the unfolding of the financial crisis.

Newsday, for example, lost 25% of its uniques when it raised a content paywall in late October; The Minneapolis Star Tribune lost 16% after charging for sports coverage. This fuels fears of traffic dips accompanying paywalls, but this is not always the case.

The data, reproduced below, should be taken only as indices, Nielson warns. The reason being that the firm vastly increased its research capacity, hence potentially affecting the year-on-year trends.

This is the list of the top 30 newspaper websites, ranked by uniques, along with the average number of sessions per user and the change since October 2008.

NYTimes.com -- 17,394,000 -- 3.97 -- (-15%)
USATODAY.com -- 9,715,000 -- 3.77 -- (-15%)
washingtonpost.com -- 8,870,000 -- 3.35 -- (-28%)
Wall Street Journal Online -- 8,004,000 -- 2.81 -- (-10%)
LA Times -- 7,661,000 -- 2.93 -- (-21%)

Daily News Online Edition -- 6,733,000 -- 2.35 -- 44%
Boston.com -- 4,760,000 -- 4.05 -- (-22%)
Chicago Tribune -- 4,631,000 -- 4.11 -- (-7%)
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 4,263,000 -- 2.97 -- (-8%)
New York Post -- 4,222,000 -- 3.32 -- (-16%)

DallasNews.com/ Dallas Morning News -- 3,396,000 -- 2.60 -- 11%
Politico -- 3,285,000 -- 3.30 -- (-28%)
TBO.com -- 3,272,000 -- 1.75 -- 219%
Chicago Sun-Times -- 2,738,000 -- 2.74 -- (-31%)
NJ.com -- 2,478,000 -- 3.44 -- 18%

Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 2,457,000 -- 5.70 -- (-7%)
Newsday -- 2,200,000 -- 2.83 -- (-25%)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- 2,136,000 -- 2.97 -- 107%
Star Tribune -- 2,096,000 -- 3.49 -- (-16%)
denverpost.com -- 2,074,000 -- 2.13 -- 120%

Philly.com -- 2,047,000 -- 3.01 -- 19%
MercuryNews.com -- 2,020,000 -- 2.40 -- (-7%)
The Houston Chronicle -- 1,909,000 -- 3.97 -- (-35%)
MiamiHerald.com -- 1,907,000 -- 2.61 -- 4%
The Washington Times -- 1,846,000 -- 2.43 -- (-10%)

KansasCity.com -- 1,775,000 -- 3.49 -- (-30%)
Seattle Times Online Network -- 1,739,000 -- 3.87 -- (-15%)
Baltimore Sun -- 1,723,000 -- 2.57 -- (-12%)
tampabay.com -- 1,668,000 -- 3.00 -- (-29%)
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,580,000 -- 2.74 -- (-31%)

Source: Editor & Publisher