Almost All Right Wing News Websites Hit with Declining January Traffic

TheRighting has unveiled its first-ever 2020-to-2024 election year traffic analysis, according to Howard Polskin, President and Founder. 

 This new feature, which will be released monthly throughout 2024, examines traffic to 15 right wing news websites from 2020 and contrasts it with their 2024 traffic. TheRighting will also run a similar comparison to the three mainstream news brands it has followed regularly since 2019: CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In its analysis of Comscore data, TheRighting found significant audience erosion at every news website except one it monitored in the four-year period from 2020 to 2024. The three largest news websites had the smallest audience declines: CNN (-20%), The New York Times (-22%), Fox News (-24%). Almost every right wing news website suffered audience decreases of at least 50%, with three outlets – Breitbart, Townhall and the Washington Free Beacon – each posting drops of 87%. Only Newsmax, among all the news websites surveyed by TheRighting, generated an audience increase (+37%) from January 2020 to January 2024.

“Going forward throughout this critical year, I expect similar or even sharper monthly losses in election year traffic from 2020 to 2024 for a variety of reasons,” said Howard Polskin. “These include consumer news avoidance and its cousin crisis fatigue, as well as the rise of alternative news sources.

“It’s important to note that 2020 was a banner year for traffic because it was the most consequential year in American history this century. Major 2020 events included the pandemic, the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, and the contentious battle for the presidency between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Unless some unfathomable incident occurs, it’s hard to see how 2024 will come close to producing the same audience levels for most news brands from four years ago.”