"Vermont had its third straight July with flash floods, but that wasn't the main driver of VTDigger's roughly 60% increase in web traffic. Taylor Haynes, the site's audience and product director, said a July 1 story - on the end of motel housing for hundreds of disadvantaged children, parents, and people with acute medical needs - generated an astonishing 437,000 pageviews."
"The Chicago Reader saw a 30% bump despite a difficult summer of layoffs and crisis during which, for "several weeks, the Reader was either gonna get bought or shut down." Last month, it was sold to Noisy Creek, owner of fellow alt-weeklies The Stranger in Seattle and the Portland Mercury. Civil Beat saw its traffic jump about 40%; its unique Public First Law Center continues to generate stories like this one on an FBI probe of state legislators."
"The sole newcomer to the Top 25 this month is the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which came in at No. 23. The Texas Tribune only saw a 5% traffic jump, but that was enough to move it up from No. 4 to No. 2, thanks to drops from ProPublica and the Salt Lake Tribune. (Remember these are all estimates, based on Similarweb data, and the numbers are quite close: 3.387 million, 3.374 million, and 3.202 million. In other words, think"
VTDigger's web traffic rose roughly 60% in July 2025, powered by a July 1 story about the end of motel housing that generated 437,000 pageviews and two K-12 education stories each topping 100,000 pageviews. Google Discover served as the primary driver for VTDigger, the Chicago Reader, and Honolulu Civil Beat. VTDigger implemented a traffic-spike playbook and an in-article newsletter pop-up that added over 2,500 subscribers. The Chicago Reader gained 30% during ownership turmoil before being sold to Noisy Creek. Civil Beat jumped about 40% thanks to reporting through its Public First Law Center. OCCRP entered the Top 25.
Read at Nieman Lab
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