Answer in a moment. (Hint for regular readers: It happens to be my personal favorite.)
That political blogs are showing tremendous year-over-year traffic growth should surprise no one, of course, given that this is an electrified election year and last year was just a year.
However, reading into to a press release received from comScore, it’s apparent that the public’s appetite for online political news and commentary couldn’t possibly be any more ravenous.
HuffingtonPost.com led among a group of selected stand-alone political blogs and news sites with 4.5 million visitors in September, up 472 percent versus year ago, while Politico.com attracted 2.4 million visitors (up 344 percent) and DrudgeReport.com saw 2.1 million visitors (up 70 percent).
“With each new election cycle, the Internet is playing a more significant role in shaping the stories of the day that are so crucial in formulating public opinion on issues and candidates,” said Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst at comScore. “That most mainstream news outlets now have their own political blogs is a testament to their increasing reach and influence. However, several independent blogs unaffiliated with larger media outlets paved the way in this space and are really beginning to enter the mainstream public consciousness with this current election cycle.”
HuffPo, Politico and Drudge may be household names — at least in the households of political junkies — but none of the three is the answer to our headline question. For the fastest-growing political site on the Internet — by a wide margin — is Talking Points Memo, which saw its September 2007 total of 32,000 visitors increase by 1,321 percent to 458,000 visitors last month.
Congratulations to Josh Marshall and his growing staff.
