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Posted January 3, 2006.
Newsknife rates news sites on relevance (how),
based on our analysis of the main Google
News site.
Read more here about our current ratings. For just $US10 join the
Newsknife Members' Area
now and see full detailed lists. Click at left to join.
These ratings are based on our sample of 293,774 individual site
listings at Google News by 3671 sites for 1670 news items throughout
2005.
Featured rating: significant fluctuations in the appearances we
recorded on Google News home page as % of site total
To get maximum traffic to your news site from Google News you need
to get as many as possible of your listings onto their home page.
Newsknife monitors listings on Google News home page and 10 sub-pages
deep.
We look here at 16 news sites where the % we found on the Google
News home page changed significantly during 2005. We suggest what
might have influenced a couple of them. See if you can sleuth the
rest - and pick up some tips.
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NYT
MONTH
|
HOME
PAGE
|
HOME %
|
H+10
TOTAL
|
|
JAN05
|
53
|
19.41
|
273
|
|
FEB05
|
33
|
15.21
|
217
|
|
MAR05
|
39
|
16.12
|
242
|
|
APR05
|
43
|
16.17
|
266
|
|
MAY05
|
13
|
14.77
|
88
|
|
JUL05
|
41
|
12.89
|
318
|
|
AUG05
|
40
|
12.20
|
328
|
|
SEP05
|
37
|
8.10
|
457
|
|
OCT05
|
43
|
8.74
|
492
|
|
NOV05
|
39
|
8.94
|
436
|
|
DEC05
|
48
|
11.01
|
436
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First up is The New York Times.
This table shows the appearances Newsknife found on the Google News
home page, and as a % of the total appearances we found on the home
page and 10 sub-pages deep.
Note the dramatic shift in September. The total appearances increased,
resulting in a one-third drop in the home page %.
"Times Select" was launched September 19. Users pay a
fee to access that section of the site. If this caused the sudden
shift in our figures (and it does look like more than a coincidence),
can anything be learned by other news sites?
Here are two possible conclusions. Firstly, charging for news
can increase your Google News listings (and therefore potential
traffic). Perhaps this is because material you charge for may be
superior - more appealing to humans and Google's algorithm.
And secondly, the home page % bounce back in December suggests
that your superior material will start migrating to the Google News
home page where the big click-thru traffic is.
(By the way, 8 of the 436 Times appearances Newsknife found during
December came direct from the Times Select url select.nytimes.com)
Here's our full site list, showing the significant fluctuations
we found in each site's % of appearances on Google News home page...
ABC News
PEAKS:
HIGHS:
LOWS: August
NONE:
COMMENT: Recovering well from a midyear drop.
Elites TV, TX
PEAKS: Feb
NONE: August onwards
COMMENT: Did Google News
Bourbon update in July have an effect?
Ireland Online, Ireland
PEAKS: Sep, Dec
NONE: Feb-Aug
COMMENT: On a rocket ride from midyear.
Japan Today, Japan
PEAKS: May, July, Nov, Dec
HIGHS: March, April, Sep
NONE: Feb
Kansas City Star, MO
HIGHS: Jan-April, Dec
COMMENT: In January we noted around 400 total appearances a month.
Now around 70.
Mail & Guardian, South Africa
NONE: Jan-May
COMMENT:Growth overall from July including the first seen on home
page.
MSNBC
PEAKS: Jan, May, Aug, Dec
Reuters India, India
NONE: May-Dec
COMMENT:Overall totals slid from 106 in January to 39.
Scotsman, United Kingdom
PEAKS: Dec
COMMENT:Multiple titles
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA
PEAKS: Feb, Oct-Dec
NONE: May
COMMENT: Overall appearances dropped in April and recovered well.
The Australian, Australia
PEAKS: Oct
HIGHS: July-Sep, Nov
The Herald, UK
PEAKS: March-May
NONE: Aug-Dec
COMMENT: The Bourbon effect again?
The Mercury News, CA
HIGHS: Feb, Nov-Dec
COMMENT: Overall appearances climbed over the year.
The New York Times
LOWS: Sep-Nov
COMMENT: The introduction of "Times Select"?
Times Online, UK
PEAKS: May, Nov-Dec
COMMENT:A very healthy climb in total and home page appearances
over the year.
Wired News
NONE: Sep-Dec
COMMENT:A slight decline overall with nothing seen on the home page
from September.
See all the numbers in the Members'
Area.
% increase on Google News home page
Column 1 shows appearances that Newsknife found on Google News
home page year-to-date pre-December. Column 2 is appearances found
during December. And column 3 is the percentage increase for December.
Sites below 20 appearances were excluded. The full list of 18 sites
is in the Newsknife Members' Area.
Year thru
Nov DEC %
70 76 109 Forbes
28 18 64 Scotsman, United
Kingdom
24 15 63 Monsters
and Critics, UK
23 9 39 United
Press International
44 15 34 Ireland
Online, Ireland
15 5 33 KABC, CA
|
FORBES
MONTH
|
TOTAL:
HOME+
SUBPGS
|
|
JAN05
|
22
|
|
FEB05
|
41
|
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MAR05
|
26
|
|
APR05
|
10
|
|
MAY05
|
30
|
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JUL05
|
166
|
|
AUG05
|
196
|
|
SEP05
|
220
|
|
OCT05
|
175
|
|
NOV05
|
164
|
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DEC05
|
834
|
Forbes started a dream
run mid-year (more).
We're guessing they've redesigned their news home page. It looks
very tidy. Has anyone else got suggestions?
Newsknife first spotted Monsters and Critics in July 2005. It has
been climbing ever since.
Top sources for the 2 Top Stories
Dominating the Google News home page when you first view it are
their two "Top Stories". And dominating these are the
two news sites listed as their first sources. This is the best exposure
a news site could aim for.
The columns in the lists below are ranking, appearances noted by
Newsknife as No.1 source in the first Top Story, and the second
Top Story. The full list of 28 sites is in the Newsknife Members'
Area.
December only:
1 6 3 ABC
News
2 2 1 Voice
of America
3 1 2 Forbes
4 1 2 Xinhua,
China
5 1 2 Guardian
Unlimited, UK
6 1 1 Los
Angeles Times, CA
No. 1 sources
Google News usually lists seven news sites per major news item
on their home page and thirty on each sub-page, all "sorted
by relevance". We award each site points per appearance on
a sliding scale (with occasional tweaking) to get the ranked positions.
The second column is the number of appearances we recorded as the
first source for a news item. The full list of 69 sites is in the
Newsknife Members' Area.
December only:
1 19 ABC
News
2 13 Forbes
3 11 Reuters
4 7 Voice
of America
5 7 Times
Online, UK
6 6 International
Herald Tribune, France
Home page sources
This table shows the number of appearances per site that Newsknife
found on the home page of Google News as source 1 to 7 for major
news items.
During December 2005 we found Forbes 13 times on the home page
of Google News as the first source for a news item, 19 times as
the second source, through to 4 times as the 7th source. The full
list of 271 sites is in the Newsknife Members' Area.
December only:
1 Forbes
13 19 12 9 7 12 4
2 ABC
News
19 11 12 8 9 7 4
3 Reuters
11 8 4 10 2 5 7
4 New
York Times
5 5 9 8 9 6 6
5 Times
Online, UK
7 8 8 5 3 3 3
6 Bloomberg
6 5 4 7 5 7 6
Home page + 10 sub-pages sources
Click here for a larger
page format showing all the information...
This list shows the total number of appearances we observed for
each site. The full list of 1578 sites is in the Newsknife Members'
Area.
December only:
1 ABC News, 1628
2 Forbes, 834
3 Reuters, 539
4 Guardian Unlimited, UK,
644
5 New York Times, 436
6 BBC News, UK, 396
Visit Newsknife regularly to discover the most relevant news sites
for news of the moment. The 3-month Newsknife Members'
Area membership lets you also see the ratings for each site
in amazing detail.
Suggestions and comments?
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