Press Release

MSNBC.com ranked #1 in August 2005 Nielsen//Net Ratings
Also sole news site named as Best Performer on Adweek Magazines’ “Web Site Hot List”

For Immediate Release--In a month defined by historical news events, MSNBC.com maintained its position atop the Current Events and Global News category drawing 26.6 million unique visitors in August 2005, according to Nielsen//Net Ratings.   For the fourth time in six months, MSNBC.com surpassed all competitors with its comprehensive coverage of the month’s big stories.

“From the space shuttle to Hurricane Katrina, the news events of August 2005 showed that Americans rely on the Internet to tell the stories.” said Charlie Tillinghast, general manager and publisher of MSNBC.com, “MSNBC.com is the leader in that space.” 

MSNBC.com’s exclusive video and trademark visual presentations were in high demand in August:  

69 million videos were played during Hurricane Katrina coverage generated 9 million plays in one day (August 29, the day Katrina made landfall) and 24 million total plays in the final  three days of the month. Viewers averaged nearly ½ hour on each video.  These statistics make Hurricane Katrina the biggest video event ever on MSNBC.com. Photo slideshow traffic soared to 181 million page views for the month with more than half generated by Hurricane Katrina coverage

On the heels of its August ratings win, MSNBC.com was named one of the top 10  hottest online destinations in Adweek Magazines’ first annual “Web Site Hot List.”  The list recognizes the Best Performers of 2005 and MSNBC.com was the only news site chosen.  According to Adweek Magazines (which includes Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek), sites were selected “based on hard numbers, momentum, popularity and the ephemeral ‘it’ factor.”