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Right-wing websites are hemorrhaging traffic

According to TheRighting, which tracks right-wing websites, traffic in 2024 is way down compared to the last presidential election cycle in 2020:

Traffic compared to 2023 was also mostly down:

Traffic tanked to most right wing websites for the sixth straight month. Only five right wing news websites posted gains in YOY unique visitors. For the third straight month, Newsmax registered an increase in unique visitors (+3%).

Somehow Newsmax has bucked the trend. What is its secret?

27 thoughts on “Right-wing websites are hemorrhaging traffic

  1. Joseph Harbin

    The coalition making up the Republican Party is splintering. Everybody hates everybody else. Enthusiasm is at an all-time low. Exhaustion rules the day.

    The old guard GOP that once dominated has been in the back seat now for decades. The neocons took over under Dubya and foreign policy and military disasters ensued. The Tea Party rebelled and became the MAGA cult under Trump. Anyone with any sense knew the party was heading over the cliff. Now it's becoming undeniably clear to everyone else.

    What do they got left? Even hating minorities gets old after a while. Especially when the times are relatively good.

  2. D_Ohrk_E1

    Is this a proxy for voter excitement/engagement, relative to the 2020 election cycle? If so, this would be huge.

  3. kylemeister

    I can readily think of a few right-wing sites that aren't listed there.

    One might wonder how the US compares to peer countries in terms of how much of a rightwingosphere they have. An intractable question? Maybe a job for Kevin. 🙂

    1. cephalopod

      The Epoch Times is certainly putting up a lot of billboards where I live, all including a picture of a white guy that looks very AI-generated.

  4. onemerlin

    A key part of Newsmax's secret? Start from a lower baseline in 2020. 🙂

    They were a secondary site then; now they're rivaling/replacing Fox as the MAGA thought leaders. Their current month's growth, though, was noted at 3%. They're keeping above water, not dominating. They look better because everyone else is face planting.

  5. kahner

    newsmax has a cable channel. only other one of those outlets with the same advantage is fox and i'm guessing they're only down because they're losing viewers and web traffic to newsmax since it's even more insane and stupid.

  6. different_name

    Holy crap, what happened to PJ Media? Wasn't Glenn & co going to Storm The Gates and show legacy media who's boss?

    At least Twitchy was well named.

  7. rick_jones

    Not that I lament the declines, but without data from a corresponding “TheLeftwing” and or news/“news” sites in general how do we know if this is improvement or an artifact of broader sector-wide decline?

    1. kennethalmquist

      Good point.

      If you follow the link you see that there has been a decline for news web sites:

      -19% CNN
      -22% New York Times
      -43% Washington Post

      They don’t really do left wing web sites, but we do find

        -4% Daily Kos
      -42% Slate

      Just eyeballing the numbers, it looks like the right wing sites have declined more than the others, but there is so much site to site variation that it’s hard to be sure.

      1. rick_jones

        Thanks. I forgot my maxim:
        Follow the links.
        Always follow the links.

        Doing so suggests it is also important to look at the absolute figures. Kindasorta like Kevin’s suggestion that someone/something on Twitter isn’t meaningful unless they have at least N followers or it was retweeted at least M times.

  8. cld

    What is its secret?

    Wingnuts like regularity and are confused by variety so they're circling around the one website that has the most entertainment value but does not have the irritation of the occasional guest or reporter who might say anything negative at all about the All-Highest Donnie Dorko and his Duller Dimmer Nazi party.

    Or, perhaps it's that wingnuts are all taking a break from engagement until the news gets better for them.

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