Traffic

Apropos of something, although I'm not sure what...

Was reminded of Alexa's traffic ranking graphs this weekend and made a couple interesting ones:

First, Texas' major market papers:

,

Now the largest 5 CMSAs where you wouldn't consider the major daily to be a "national" newspaper (excluding, therefore NY, LA, Chicago, DC):

The higher ranking of Boston makes sense -- in fact, I almost left it out as one of the "nationals." But it seems that the Houston Chronicle generates a lot more traffic than its analogous peers. Can some of our Houstonian friends give us a guess as to why?

Next, the DMN and the Chronicle next to Craigslist and the two most-visited blogs on the 'net. Craigslist traffic encompasses all the Craigslist cities, but remember: they have no "content" in the traditional sense.

Discuss amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The new media is neither new, nor a lady who says sooth in re: the future.

Comments

[Scott Clark]

Regarding the traffic of regional news sites, a big part of the story lies in the nature of the market and its competition. In Dallas, you have both the Morning News, the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth and some strong broadcast competitors. In Detroit, you have the Free Press and the News. Philadelphia's audience spills over into New York and New Jersey, where there is plenty of competition. The pies there are cut into more slices. Of course, the quality, features and frequency of updating of the sites make a difference too, but I'll leave that to a less partisan viewer to evaluate. I'm vice president and editor for HoustonChronicle.com.

[kevin whited]

Wow, sounds to me like the Houston newspaper needs some competition!

I'll leave that to a less partisan reader to evaluate as well. :)