points out a New York Times press release which crows about the wonderful success of the NYT’s web site:
NEW YORK, Oct 20, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The New York Times Company reported that for September NYTimes.com achieved record traffic of 21.3 million unique visitors worldwide, a 49% increase from September of last year, according to internal data. NYTimes.com generated 561 million page views, up 17% year over year.
Mickey rightfully notes that somehow, the “stunning success” of the pay-for-punditry TimesSelect service seems to have been left out of the release. But if I were a NYT stockholder (and I’m sure glad I’m not) I’d be asking what they’ve got to be so proud of in the numbers they are reporting.
For context, here’s a table of the NYT’s September daily visits compared against those of some top-tier bloggers:
| Site | September Visits |
| NY Times | 21,300,000 |
| Daily Kos | 20,480,000 |
| Gizmodo | 7,360,000 |
| Instapundit.com | 4,500,000 |
| Gawker | 4,500,000 |
| Eschaton | 4,160,000 |
| Defamer | 2,880,000 |
| Go Fug Yourself | 2,600,000 |
| Power Line | 2,300,000 |
| Wonkette | 2,100,000 |
I don’t know about you, but “NYTimes.com: we’re slightly more popular than that Kos guy!” doesn’t strike me as a huge boast for a $3.3B media company. Maybe stick with “The New York Times: eight times more popular than those chicks that can’t stand Kirstin Dunst’s outfits.”