The top 10 news websites in the USA for 2025 include legacy giants, digital-first brands, and platforms with broad political and cultural influence. Rankings are based on comprehensive traffic, reach, and reputation data from recent industry reports and analytics platforms.
Top 10 News Websites in the USA (2025)
1. The New York Times
- Launch Date: 1851 (digital: 1996)
- Founder(s): Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones
- Owner: The New York Times Company (Ochs-Sulzberger family)
- Headquarters: New York City
- About: A gold standard for American journalism, The New York Times set trends in digital subscription, global investigations, and multimedia storytelling.
2. CNN (Cable News Network)
- Launch Date: June 1, 1980
- Founder: Ted Turner
- Owner: Warner Bros. Discovery (as of 2025)
- Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
- About: The world’s first 24-hour news channel, CNN revolutionized live coverage and international reporting with a vast digital arm.
3. Fox News
- Launch Date: October 7, 1996
- Founder: Rupert Murdoch; launched by Roger Ailes
- Owner: Fox Corporation (Murdoch family)
- Headquarters: New York City
- About: America’s highest-profile conservative news source; dominant in politics and opinion, now with a massive digital audience.
4. Yahoo! News
- Launch Date: August 1996
- Founder: Brad Clawsie (as a project within Yahoo)
- Owner: Yahoo Inc. (Apollo Global Management, as of 2025)
- Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California
- About: Among the largest news aggregators, blending original content and syndicated news from major publishers.
5. USA Today
- Launch Date: September 14, 1982
- Founder: Al Neuharth
- Owner: Gannett Company, Inc.
- Headquarters: Tysons, Virginia
- About: Known for colorful graphics and concise news; a pioneer of accessible journalism and digital strategy.
6. BBC News (US Edition)
- Launch Date: November 4, 1997 (BBC News Online)
- Owner: BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
- Headquarters: London, UK (with dedicated US digital team)
- About: Trusted worldwide for impartial news, also servicing a dedicated US digital audience with a growing stateside footprint.
7. NPR (National Public Radio)
- Launch Date: npr.org launched in 1995
- Owner: National Public Radio (not-for-profit membership, governed by its stations)
- Headquarters: Washington, DC
- About: Leading source for in-depth US and international news, pioneering podcasts and radio/digital journalism.
8. Reuters
- Launch Date: reuters.com launched 1996
- Owner: Thomson Reuters Corporation
- Headquarters: London, UK; significant US operations in New York
- About: Renowned for breaking business and world news, first to many major scoops, highly respected in financial circles.
9. NBC News
- Launch Date: NBCNews.com launched in 1996
- Owner: NBCUniversal News Group (Comcast)
- Headquarters: New York City
- About: Major US television and digital broadcaster, acclaimed for political, investigative and breaking news.
10. The Washington Post
- Launch Date: Website launched in June 1996; paper founded 1877
- Owner: Nash Holdings (Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, since 2013)
- Headquarters: Washington, DC
- About: Famed for Watergate breaking news; now a leader in digital reporting, data journalism, and political analysis.
Highlights and Trends
- The New York Times continues to lead in both digital innovation and sheer audience size, outpacing others with nearly 400 million monthly visits.
- CNN and Fox News remain the most influential for breaking news and political coverage, each with hundreds of millions of monthly visitors.
- Yahoo! News, though less prominent as a news creator, still drives enormous aggregated traffic across diverse topics.
- Digital-native outlets like NPR and Reuters are favored for in-depth, unbiased coverage and continue to climb in online influence.
- BBC News and Washington Post’s dual focus on international and US politics help them maintain a top-10 presence despite increased competition.
- Newsrooms are adapting to mobile-first consumption, multimedia content, and shifting consumer preferences for both visual and written formats.
2025 Trends and Impact
- Most of these sites launched digital platforms in the late 1990s as the internet transformed news delivery and business models.
- Ownership is a mix of families (NYT, Fox), public/private corporations (Gannett, Warner Bros. Discovery), philanthropists (Jeff Bezos at Washington Post), and global organizations (BBC).
- Their digital reach, monthly visits, and social impact are unmatched in US media, driving both public discourse and the pace of global news.
These websites collectively shape the modern landscape of information for millions of Americans and global readers, adapting to technology, audience shifts, and evolving news distribution models.
