CNN Digital Dominates September with Coverage of Economy, Politics, Weather

As Internet users sought up-to-the-minute news and information about the Republican National Convention, Hurricane Gustav, the economic crisis and other events, the CNN Digital Network ranked No.1 among all Current Events and Global News sites, registering 1.7 billion total minutes in September. This is the highest month on record for CNN.com since tracking began in 2001. (Source: Nielsen Online Home/Work Panel, September 2008)

During September, the CNN Digital Network also:

• Ranked No. 1 in share among all Current Events and Global News sites; (Source: Nielsen Online Home/Work Panel)
• Registered 44.4 minutes per person, the highest average time per person among the Top 5 News and Information sites based on reach – and the highest average time spent on CNN.com in more than two years; (Source: Nielsen Online Home/Work Panel)
• Registered 37.3 million unique visitors in September, CNN.com’s second highest unique visitor count since tracking began (Source: Nielsen Online Home/Work Panel); and
• Generated 1.9 billion page views, the highest monthly count in almost three years. (Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, Global)
• Served 144 million videos, the highest month ever for CNN.com video. (Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, Global)

September was also a record-setting month for CNNMoney.com – CNN’s exclusive business site and the online home of Fortune, Money and FSB: Fortune Small Business magazines – as its reach and engagement grew more than any other site in the business and financial news category according to Nielsen Online. In September, CNNMoney.com’s month-over-month percentage increases were the highest among the top 10 business and financial news sites; and the site generated record-breaking traffic:

• 10.4 million unique visitors – up 46 percent versus prior month
• 257.2 million page views – up 58 percent versus prior month
• 192.8 million minutes – up 67 percent versus prior month

CNNMoney.com’s year-to-date numbers have also increased significantly with 142-percent growth in page views, a 121-percent increase in total minutes, a 70-percent rise in time per person and a 30-percent increase in unique users over this time last year. (Source: Nielsen Online and Omniture SiteCatlyst, Global)

On Monday, Sept. 1, the day Hurricane Gustav made landfall and the first day of the Republican National Convention, CNN.com garnered more than 59 million page views and brought in more than 8.6 million unique users. Also on that day, CNN.com Live served a record-breaking 1.8 million streams, a 124-percent increase over CNN.com Live’s previous high on Feb. 21, when it served more than 700,000 streams amid the Democratic presidential debate in Austin, Texas. (Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, Global)

During the four days of the Republican National Convention, CNN Digital was the most used online news entity with 207.6 million usage minutes, 42.5 million more than Yahoo! News and 45.6 million more than MSNBC Digital.

On Friday, Sept. 26, the day of the first presidential debate, the CNN Digital Network ranked No. 1 in unique visitors, total minutes and page views. Also, on Sept. 26, the Political Ticker, the No. 1 political news blog according to Nielsen Online, set a new daily traffic record when it generated 4.8 million page views, nearly doubling its previous daily record, while CNNPolitics.com generated 12 million page views, a 91-percent increase over the prior four-week period. (Source: Omniture SiteCatylist, Global).

Maintaining its top ranking for the 23rd month in a row, CNN Mobile remains the No. 1 mobile Internet news provider with 8.7 million unique users in September. CNN Digital Network mobile usage has increased 51 percent since last year. (Source: Nielsen Mobile). Breaking an additional all-time high record for the month of September, CNN Mobile generated 88 million domestic page views for the month. (Source: Crisp Wireless)

CNN.com is the world’s No. 1 destination for online and wireless news, garnering the greatest audience share of total minutes among current events and global news sites. Launched in 1995, CNN.com draws from the resources of CNN Worldwide and its many partners to provide consumers with the most enriching, immediate interaction with news anywhere, seamlessly combining articles, videos, images, interactive features and user-generated content. CNN.com’s news video offering – both live and on-demand – is unparalleled on the Web. CNN.com’s recent awards include an Edward R. Murrow award, a National Headliner award, four EPpy awards and the Online News Association’s award for general excellence.