CNN Digital #1 for September 2018: Visitors, Video, Mobile, Social, Politics & Millennial Reach
CNN Digital remained the leading digital news organization in September 2018, with an audience larger than all competitors in unique multiplatform visitors, mobile visitors, video starts, millennial reach, politics and social following.
Heading into the U.S. midterm elections, CNN Politics saw its third largest month ever in September, behind only January 2017 (Trump Inauguration) and November 2016 (Presidential Election).
#1 IN MULTIPLATFORM VISITORS
Ranking #1 again in unique multiplatform visitors, CNN had a larger audience reach than any other news source in September 2018 with 115 million unique visitors domestically. CNN outranked Fox News by 22 million unique visitors and Washington Post by 30 million unique visitors across platforms.
CNN: 115 Million Unique Visitors
- FoxNews.com – 93 million unique visitors
- WashingtonPost.com – 86 million unique visitors
- The New York Times Brand – 85 million unique visitors
- USAToday.com – 62 million unique visitors
- NBCNews.com – 59 million unique visitors
Source: comScore Media Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Digital Audience, September 2018, U.S. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category.
#1 IN MULTIPLATFORM VIDEO STARTS
For more than three years, or 40 straight months, CNN topped all competitors in August 2018 in digital news video with 539 million multiplatform video starts. August 2018 marked the third largest month on record for CNN digital video, behind only May and April 2018.
CNN: 539 Million Multiplatform Video Starts
- FoxNews.com – 215 million starts
- ABCNews.com Sites – 164 million starts
- MSN News – 141 million starts
- Yahoo News – 98 million starts
- MSNBC TV – 92 million starts
Source: comScore Video Media Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Audience, August 2018, U.S. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category. (July data is the most current available)
#1 IN MOBILE UNIQUE VISITORS
CNN’s mobile audience once again surpassed all competitors in September 2018 with 91 million mobile unique visitors – 18 million more mobile users than second-place Fox News and 23 million more than fourth-place New York Times.
CNN: 91 Million Mobile Unique Visitors
- FoxNews.com – 73 million unique visitors
- Washingtonpost.com – 72 million unique visitors
- The New York Times Brand – 68 million unique visitors
- USAToday.com – 51 million unique visitors
- NBCNews.com – 48 million unique visitors
Source: comScore Mobile Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Mobile, September 2018, U.S. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category.
#1 NEWS BRAND AMONG MILLENNIALS
CNN continued its streak as the #1 news outlet for multiplatform visitors between the ages of 18-34 in September with 30 million unique visitors in that age range – 2 million more than second-place Buzzfeed and 8 million more than fourth-place Washington Post.
CNN: 30 Million Millennial Unique Multiplatform Visitors
- Buzzfeed – 28 million millennial unique visitors
- The New York Times Brand – 26 million millennial unique visitors
- Washingtonpost.com – 22 million millennial unique visitors
- HuffPost U.S. (All Inclusive) – 18 million millennial unique visitors
- USAToday.com – 17 million millennial unique visitors
Source: comScore Media Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Digital Audience Persons 18-34, September 2018, U.S.. Based on CNN Brand entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors in the News/Information Category.
#1 POLITICAL NEWS SOURCE
Continuing its domination in the political news category for more than three years running, CNN Politics saw 50 million multiplatform unique visitors (a 70% growth vs. the prior year), 40 million mobile unique visitors, 304 mm multiplatform views and 86 mm desktop video starts in September 2018 heading into the Midterm elections. September 2018 marked the third largest month ever for CNN Politics, behind only January 2017 (Trump Inauguration) and November 2016 (Presidential Election).
CNN Politics: 50 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors
- Politico.com – 32 million unique visitors
- TheHill.com – 25.3 million unique visitors
- Fox News Politics – 24.8 million unique visitors
- NBCNews.com Politics – 14 million unique visitors
- HuffPost Politics – 13 million unique visitors
Source: comScore Media Metrix®, New/Information – Politics, Total Digital Audience, September 2018, U.S.; CNN Politics has been #1 in the competitive rank in video and multiplatform views since March of 2015.
#1 SOCIAL MEDIA
CNN has ranked as the number one social news outlet in the US for more than four years, with more fans and followers than any other competitor.
- #1 news brand on Facebook with 48 million Facebook fans across CNN’s main accounts
- #1 most followed news brand on Twitter with 95 million followers across CNN’s main accounts
- @CNNBRK alone had over 12 million more Twitter followers than the leading competitive flagship account (The New York Times – 42.0 mm followers) and 36.2 million more than Fox News (18.0 mm followers)
- #1 most followed US news brand on Instagram with 5.6 million followers
Sources: Shareablee, September 2018. Brands included in comparison are CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, HuffPost, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BBC News, BuzzFeed, ABC News, NPR, Mashable, The Daily Mail, NowThis, AJ+, Al Jazeera English, NBC News, CBS News, HLN, and Yahoo News. Facebook main accounts for CNN are CNN and CNN International. Twitter main accounts for CNN are @CNN and @CNNBRK. Instagram for CNN includes flagship account only
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PRESS CONTACT: Emily.Kuhn@cnn.com