America's #1 news website for 5 months running experiences
unprecedented election week traffic
Tops CNN.com by 28% in time per person on election day
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 13, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Msnbc.com dominated election week coverage with more than 782 million page views and over 53 million unique visitors during the week ending November 8, 2008.* In fact, msnbc.com's election week coverage of "Decision '08" nearly topped the total number of page views the site had during the entire month of November 2007.*
Msnbc.com's extensive election coverage and innovative offerings across all platforms engaged consumers and drove the site to record-shattering numbers. According to Nielsen Online, msnbc.com was number one in total minutes and time per person on election day, illustrating the site's ability to engage users better than any other news site. On election day, msnbc.com beat CNN.com by 28% in time per person, with nearly 13.5 minutes per user compared to 10.5 minutes for CNN.com.** Consumers also turned to msnbc.com for next day insight and analysis on election results. On November 5, msnbc.com had the biggest post-election audience with 11.5 million unique visitors according to Nielsen Online, placing it ahead of both CNN.com and Yahoo! News.**
Msnbc.com continued to see explosive growth in online video, with total video streams during the week surging to over 40 million streams.* Users averaged 42 minutes per live stream session on MSNBC TV's all-day live election coverage streamed on msnbc.com.*** And President-Elect Obama's acceptance speech generated over 2 million live and on-demand streams.*
Msnbc.com's innovative tools on the "Decision '08 Dashboard" empowered users by providing compelling resources they wanted to surface news in meaningful ways. Msnbc.com's "Decision '08" election widget, with more than 16 million page views and over 1 million unique users for the week ending November 8, enabled consumers to get live feeds of coverage across the Web.**** Msnbc.com also saw a significant increase in global traffic, as week-over-week traffic more than doubled in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.*
Page views to msnbc.com's mobile site surged to more than 55% over the previous weekly record.* FirstRead (www.firstread.msnbc.com), the popular blog delivering the best insight on the day's political news, saw page views spike to 49% over the previous record.* Newsvine, msnbc.com's social media news site, had its best week ever, with more than 4.5 million page views, while members wrote more than 2,300 articles.*****
Msnbc.com's history-making weekly site records from November followed a record-breaking month in October, where the site saw a 37% year-over-year increase in unique visitors, outpacing both CNN.com and Yahoo! News. According to Nielsen Online, msnbc.com remained in the #1 position for the fifth consecutive month with 40.9 million unique visitors in October 2008.** This is the site's third month in row with more than 40 million unique visitors, a mark that Yahoo! News has achieved only once and one that CNN.com has never broken.
Msnbc.com's comprehensive election coverage features original journalism, exclusive multimedia features, live votes, interactive maps that revealed results down to the county level, and world-class reporting and video from NBC News and MSNBC Cable.
About msnbc.com
Msnbc.com delivers a fuller spectrum of news. Drawing on its award-winning original journalism, NBC News heritage, trusted sources and Microsoft's advanced technologies, the site presents compelling, diverse and visually engaging stories on the consumer's platform of choice. Based in Redmond, WA, msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and NBC Universal (NYSE:GE). According to Nielsen Online, msnbc.com was the number one Current Events and Global News site with more than 40 million unique visitors in October, 2008.
*Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst **Source: Nielsen Online: Netview ***Source: Limelight Exchange ****Source: Clearspring *****Omniture SiteCatalyst + Newsvine Fennel