Update @ 9:47 am U.S. Central Time on 5 September 2017:
This snapshot is taken on one day. This day represents the number of visits for a month. So the previous 30 days on 17 August 2017 is the time period that SimilarWeb is collecting the data.
With the increasing frequency of bearing false witness in the form of news, otherwise known as ‘fake news’, we can rely on Catholic online sources to separate the weeds from the wheat.
In my job of searching for the best sources of news as the editor of Big Pulpit, I have gained somewhat of a comprehensive catalog of where to find faithful news and not so faithful news.
There are various measures of metrics that I use, but for this post, I will utilize the total visits in one day or what is called a snapshot in a moment of time. In layman’s terms, on August 17, 2017, I looked at the most visited online Catholic news organizations for that date.
The definition of a ‘news organization’ is as follows: Any online Catholic news organization that creates a lot of posts covering a wide array of topics.
Yes, it’s my definition and yours may differ from mine, but the purpose of this post is to see where everyone stands, and it’s supposed to be fun and interesting.
The source of my analytics that I am using is called SimilarWeb. This is my source and method of ranking websites. The rankings are my own and I use them for entertainment purposes and for no other reason than for fun. Some of these online Catholic news organizations I do not visit at all, others I visit frequently.
I’ve included all websites that fall within my wide definition of an online Catholic news organization. What I have not included are what are called in the business ‘intelligent news aggregators’, such as Big Pulpit & New Advent, for example. These types of news organizations do not create content, according to my definition, but aggregate and distribute content.
Without further delay, here are the Top-15 Most Popular Online Catholic News Organizations on the day of 17 August 2017 (the total amount of visitors for the previous 30 days tallied on 17 August 2017 is listed in brackets next to their name):
- Aleteia (5,190,000)
- Catholic News Agency (1,400,000)
- National Catholic Register (1,110,000)
- Crux (619,860)
- Catholic Herald (562,520)
- Catholic Culture, including Catholic World News (560,900)
- Church Militant, news only (526,240)
- National Catholic Reporter (468,310)
- OSV Newsweekly (275,400)
- The Tablet (191,580)
- U.S. Catholic (164,930)
- Catholic News Service (114,310)
- CommonWeal (107,350)
- The Remnant (100,180)
- The Wanderer (<12,000)
The Wanderer registers less than 12,000 visitors for that day, that is the cutoff that SimilarWeb uses to keep track of websites. That is why it appears as ‘less than 12,000’.
Disclosure: I am the editor of Big Pulpit and also a contributor for the National Catholic Register, all views and posts are my own.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post are solely for fun and entertainment. The information provided has been compiled using SimilarWeb.
Eye of the Tiber is my favorite. They try not to be accurate but sometimes satire becomes prophetic
Eye of the Tiber, hits the right note on satire better than most. Funny stuff!
I had no idea that Aleteia had a daily audience of over 5 million. Quite remarkable.
In a nutshell, John Meyers insightfully characterized Eye of the Tiber as not-so-accurate but oh-so-prophetic. Spot on, Mr. Meyers!
With all due respect for the accuracy and integrity of this list and it’s creator, the fact that “The Remnant” is near the bottom and “Pewsitter” is missing reveals the very sad fact that with the exception of traditional Catholics, the vast majority of the Faithful have no clue what’s really going on in their Church.
With the exception of Cardinal Burke, Pope Benedict 16 and a few others, the visible Church is being overrun with corruption and heresy.
Of course the true Church “prevails” as our Lord promised but folks, you’ll not find much about it within most of the publications in this list.
Hi Michael,
Actually, that is how many visitors they have in one month tallied on 17 August.
Hi Walt,
Pewsitter isn’t on the list because of my strict definition of a news organization, ie, they are an aggregator of news, not a creator.
Nonetheless, I am loosening my definition and making it very wide in the next poll. Expanding it to use more than one analytics source.
I must support Tito regarding Pewsitter. I thought exactly the same thing: sites like Pewsitter and Drudge Report, after which it is so painfully and obviously patterned, are NOT news sites unto themselves… they collect and list news stories of a particular focus: Catholicism for Pewsitter; conservatism for Drudge.
Interesting. But the numbers say nothing about whether the news they report is fake or not.