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Study: Washington Post ‘most popular’ US newspaper site on Twitter

The Washington Post was the most popular newspaper in the United States last year on Twitter, according to a recent study. The New York Times was a close second, followed by USA Today.

by WAN-IFRA Staff executivenews@wan-ifra.org | January 13, 2014

The findings were announced by Searchmetrics, a digital marketing software and services company, on 9 January.

Interestingly, in print, the Post has about one-fourth of the daily circulation of The New York Times and roughly one-third of USA Today’s.

Stories from USA Today and The Washington Post also made up 90 percent of the list of the Top 10 most tweeted newspaper website stories during 2013, according to Searchmetrics.

The company says it “analyzed the number of tweets per week generated by content on 10 leading US newspaper websites using the continuously updated database of search and social network data which powers its software for tracking search and social media marketing activity.”

Top 10 most popular US newspaper websites on Twitter

1. The Washington Post: 275,193 tweets per week

2. The New York Times: 261,422 tweets per week

3. USA Today: 149,960 tweets per week

4. The Wall Street Journal: 134,248 tweets per week

5. Los Angeles Times: 118,911 tweets per week

6. New York Daily News: 51,877 tweets per week

7. Chicago Tribune: 17,777 tweets per week

8. New York Post: 13,532 tweets per week

9. Denver Post: 8,887 tweets per week

10. Chicago Sun-Times: 4,982 tweets per week

On another note, while the study looked at the websites of the newspapers and not their Twitter accounts, it is perhaps also worth considering the number of followers many of these publications have on Twitter. For example, as of this writing on 13 January, The Washington Post has 2,384,437 followers, The New York Times has 10,635,656, and USA Today 902,138.

Top 10 most frequently tweeted stories

In terms of news stories, a USA Today article that was tweeted more than 400,000 times took the top position in Searchmetrics’ analysis of the 10 newspaper websites’ most tweeted stories of 2013.

The Washington Post, had five stories in the Top 10including four of the top five, and four are from USA Today. Surprisingly, none is from The New York Times.

1. Texas gunman brain dead; may be tied to Colo. slayings: 408,816 tweets, USA Today

2. Newtown shooter Lanza had more than 1,700 rounds of ammunition in his house: 361,259 tweets, The Washington Post

3. Kenyatta wins Kenya presidential election by narrow margin: 321,262 tweets, The Washington Post

4. The Washington PostSupreme Court conservatives express skepticism over voting law provision: 308,926 tweets, The Washington Post

5. Thousands rally outside Supreme Court as it hears cases on gay marriage: 294,681 tweets, The Washington Post

6. Suicide bombers target Afghan security forces: 294,510 tweets, USA Today

7. No. 3 Duke gets incredible boost from Ryan Kelly: 265,747 tweets, USA Today

8. Working Hollywood: Tattoo artist Dickcherry has lasting influence: 256,117 tweets, LA Times

9. Man charged in NY crash that killed couple, baby: 219,832 tweets, USA Today

10. N. Korea threatens nuclear test, more rocket launches in wake of tightened sanctions: 184,302 tweets, The Washington Post

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