Journalism maintains democracy, and one of the many channels through which that happens is news websites. 

However, recent trackers suggest that many Americans prefer visiting news websites focused on issues beyond politics. 

TL;DR

• Entertainment and sports news websites account for 25% of the top 30 rankings, indicating Americans’ preference for convenience over original journalism.
• Legacy print outlets rank surprisingly low in favourism despite prestige.

This visualisation ranked America’s most favourite news website, based on a YouGov poll measuring fame and favourability among over 24 million U.S. adults. 

The Most Popular News Websites (Q3 2025)

“Popularity” is the percentage of people who have a favourable opinion of a news website.

The table below shows the most popular news websites in the US, their popularity percentages, and platform types.

Yahoo, which ranks number one on the list, is not an original journalism outlet but an aggregator. 

But there’s an underground perspective to this. 

Yahoo is often the default homepage for millions of browsers, artificially inflating both its traffic and “favorability.” 

Trust surveys show only 68% of Americans trust national media generally, and Yahoo News specifically performs poorly in trust rankings.

Clear Disparity Between Trust and Usage

In July 2024, CNN.com had the most monthly visits in the United States with 525 million visits, yet CNN ranks only 8th on this YouGov Tracker “favorites” list. 

Meanwhile, trust surveys show CNN is perceived as liberal-leaning and is highly polarizing. In other words, many Americans use CNN but don’t necessarily trust or favor it.

Another interesting aspect of this data is the Washington Post Collapse. An internal Washington Post traffic sheet showed just 55 million monthly visits in February 2024, its lowest in several years.

Yet it ranks 13th on the favorites list, ahead of sites with far more traffic. 

This suggests the Post trades on brand prestige and legacy reputation rather than current engagement. 

People say they favor it, but the Post saw a 14% year-over-year decline in unique visitors.

Entertainment Dominates “Hard News”

The ranking shows an odd preference hierarchy as well. 

Sports sites punch far above their weight. For example, ESPN ranked 11th, NFL.com ranked 14th, and CBS Sports ranked 20th. 

Celebrity and Entertainment sites such as US Weekly and E! Online rank surprisingly high, as well. 

Meanwhile, prestigious business and policy outlets languish. For example, the Wall Street Journal is ranked 53rd. 

This suggests that Americans’ “favorite” news sources skew heavily toward entertainment value rather than informational depth. 

The favorability is about engagement and emotional satisfaction, not just journalism quality. 

Digital-Native Sites vs Legacy Brands

Digital-only sites such as BuzzFeed, HuffPost, Vox, and The Verge consistently outrank legacy print newspapers in favorability ratings. 

Yet traffic data shows The New York Times (474.5 million visits) and CNN (356.7 million) still dominate actual usage. So, there’s a perception-versus-reality gap.

Meanwhile, BBC News has a +26 net trust score, making it one of the most trusted outlets, and it ranks second on this favorites list. 

Yet its actual US traffic is modest. 

This shows that international outlets benefit from perceived neutrality because they’re outside America’s partisan media wars. 

BBC is favored because it’s trusted, not because of massive usage.

ELI5: Top News Websites in the U.S

When it comes to news websites, many Americans prefer; they conflate “favorite” with “most entertaining/convenient,” not “most trustworthy” or “most used.” 

High-traffic sites like CNN and the NY Times don’t crack the top 3 favourites, while aggregators (Yahoo, MSN) and entertainment sites dominate.

Source: 

YouGov Tracker | Statista | The Harris Poll | Press Gazzette