Google+ Engagement for News Sites: Top Performers and One-Year Growth Rates

Which news sites get the most engagement on their Google+ pages?

It’s been a year since I took an early look at engagement rates for news organizations on Google+, so I thought I’d revisit the topic and do a fresh comparison.

As with my previous comparison, I used All my + to pull data on +1’s, shares and comments for every post on the official Google+ pages of a selection of news sites.

I used the same news organizations as last time with a few changes and additions, bringing the list to 48. The group includes a cross-section of print, broadcast and Web-only news organizations, and is not intended to be a definitive list.

It is important to note that the performance of the Google+ pages varies depending on what is examined.

Personally I like to look at the per post averages as this helps to level the playing field and provide a general sense of how much user activity and engagement typically occurs. However this comparison gets skewed by a few pages with fairly limited post activity.

So I also compiled the total engagement counts for all of the Google+ pages. News organizations that post more frequently have a strong advantage in this comparison but it helps to present another side of what’s happening.

Since it has been a year since my first comparison I also calculated the one-year growth rates for both the average engagement and total engagement figures.

Google+ Pages: Average Engagement Per Post

	Google+ Page	+1's Per Post	Shares Per Post	Comments Per Post	Total Per Post
1	Mashable	239.86	87.22	66.96	394.04
2	BBC News	147.34	48.36	56.81	252.51
3	The Economist	125.84	38.12	40.39	204.35
4	TIME	109.73	30.11	43.74	183.58
5	The New York Times	94.39	35.73	31.4	161.52
6	Breaking News	75.56	33.49	44.5	153.55
7	The Next Web	87.36	35.83	19.43	142.62
8	NBC News	85.25	20.64	36.64	142.53
9	The Guardian	81.25	25.28	21.43	127.96
10	The Wall Street Journal	72.8	28.16	25.66	126.62
11	The Verge	70.76	18.26	27.86	116.88
12	TechCrunch	63.92	17.19	21.16	102.27
13	CNET	52.7	12.67	19.86	85.23
14	msnbc	44.94	8.21	28.54	81.69
15	NPR	35.88	17.91	18.92	72.71
16	Le Monde	30.1	10.33	31.54	71.97
17	CNN International	39.76	9.34	20.03	69.13
18	Al Jazeera English	35.85	12.36	16	64.21
19	Financial Times	38.91	12.4	12.15	63.46
20	The Huffington Post	29.31	9.93	18.58	57.82
21	ABC News	22.98	8.12	20.06	51.16
22	Anderson Cooper 360	29.76	4.09	16.06	49.91
23	Fox News	12.74	4.31	30.58	47.63
24	PBS	24.45	9.04	5.15	38.64
25	Washington Post	20.59	8.67	8.96	38.22
26	Los Angeles Times	23.2	5.59	7.35	36.14
27	Yahoo! News	18.59	6.28	7.64	32.51
28	PBS NewsHour	17.83	6.34	8.21	32.38
29	The Atlantic	17.21	7.14	7.94	32.29
30	USA TODAY	17.48	4.64	7.47	29.59
31	Bloomberg News	14.36	6.04	7.3	27.7
32	Newsweek and The Daily Beast	12.57	4.95	9.22	26.74
33	CNBC	15.13	3.03	6.71	24.87
34	CBS News	8.29	4.63	7.77	20.69
35	Slate	8.66	3.2	7.45	19.31
36	Business Insider	11.34	4.34	2.61	18.29
37	Daily Mail	7.3	2.42	5.8	15.52
38	Forbes	9.46	2.74	3.13	15.33
39	CNNMoney	8.74	2.56	3.48	14.78
40	The New Yorker	8.82	3.21	1.84	13.87
41	Sky News	6.68	2.31	2.28	11.27
42	ReadWriteWeb	6.01	2.5	2.11	10.62
43	Chicago Tribune	5.5	2.02	2.23	9.75
44	The Boston Globe	5.18	1.48	1.8	8.46
45	Newser	2.43	1.24	1.92	5.59
46	The Telegraph	1.63	0.79	0.56	2.98
47	New York Magazine	1.54	0.32	0.37	2.23
48	The Fiscal Times	0.1	0.29	0.02	0.41

Mashable is the winner here by a considerable margin, with BBC News also faring better than most. Last year’s top performer The New York Times drops to #5. There are 12 news organizations with a combined average above 100.

I should point out that a few of the pages have not been active for some time. As of today Bloomberg News and The Telegraph have not made a new post since July 2012, and the most recent post on the CBS News page is dated September 2012.

Also I was once again unable to find an active Google+ page for CNN. Last year I used CNN iReport but as of today it has only two posts and is no longer active. So I replaced it with the CNN International page, which hadn’t been created yet when I did the first comparison. I also added Anderson Cooper 360.

Google+ Pages: Total Engagement

	Google+ Page	Total +1's	Total Shares	Total Comments	Combined Total
1	The Verge	320,662	82,774	126,257	529,693
2	Mashable	238,663	86,786	66,630	392,079
3	NBC News	178,174	43,129	76,578	297,881
4	The Next Web	176,557	72,421	39,268	288,246
5	TechCrunch	171,241	46,057	56,683	273,981
6	CNET	154,680	37,179	58,279	250,138
7	BBC News	137,022	44,971	52,833	234,826
8	The Economist	109,359	33,024	35,103	177,486
9	Breaking News	78,281	34,700	46,104	159,085
10	Le Monde	58,914	20,225	61,726	140,865
11	TIME	72,419	19,872	28,867	121,158
12	ABC News	45,016	15,911	39,307	100,234
13	Los Angeles Times	40,701	9,797	12,895	63,393
14	Fox News	14,496	4,905	34,805	54,206
15	Financial Times	30,662	9,774	9,571	50,007
16	Daily Mail	21,824	7,240	17,333	46,397
17	PBS	29,069	10,754	6,119	45,942
18	The Huffington Post	22,684	7,685	14,382	44,751
19	CNBC	26,987	5,413	11,964	44,364
20	The Guardian	27,951	8,698	7,373	44,022
21	PBS NewsHour	22,287	7,926	10,259	40,472
22	CNN International	22,980	5,397	11,579	39,956
23	msnbc	19,368	3,538	12,299	35,205
24	The Wall Street Journal	17,910	6,927	6,312	31,149
25	Forbes	18,909	5,466	6,263	30,638
26	CNNMoney	17,411	5,101	6,929	29,441
27	Anderson Cooper 360	15,773	2,166	8,514	26,453
28	USA Today	15,519	4,123	6,635	26,277
29	ReadWriteWeb	14,473	6,020	5,080	25,573
30	The New Yorker	15440	5615	3222	24,277
31	The New York Times	13,592	5,145	4,522	23,259
32	NPR	10,727	5,355	5,656	21,738
33	Slate	8,532	3,150	7,337	19,019
34	Al Jazeera English	9,286	3,201	4,145	16,632
35	The Washington Post	7,949	3,345	3,457	14,751
36	Yahoo! News	7,642	2,580	3,141	13,363
37	The Boston Globe	5,943	1,703	2,061	9,707
38	Newser	3,645	1,864	2,883	8,392
39	Chicago Tribune	4,393	1,597	1,785	7,775
40	Newsweek and The Daily Beast	2,765	1,090	2,029	5,884
41	Sky News	3,272	1,133	1,115	5,520
42	CBS News	1,160	648	1,088	2,896
43	The Atlantic	1,325	550	611	2,486
44	Business Insider	1,134	434	261	1,829
45	New York Magazine	912	191	221	1,324
46	Bloomberg News	675	284	343	1,302
47	The Telegraph	70	34	24	128
48	The Fiscal Times	18	54	4	76

In this category The Verge dominates; they are certainly putting some effort into posting on Google+. Mashable at #2 is also doing very well. 12 of the of the 46 news organizations have more than 100,000 combined engagement actions.

As with the average engagement figures, the disparity between the top, middle and bottom of the table is significant.

Some news organizations have larger audiences and produce more content than others, which gives them a leg up. But there is plenty of opportunity for news sites to increase their Google+ activity and improve engagement.

Google+ Pages: One Year-Growth Rates

Here are the one-year growth rates for average engagement per post:

	Google+ Page	Average Per Post 1/10/12	Average Per Post 1/8/13	One-Year Growth Rate
1	The Economist	14.32	204.35	1327%
2	Daily Mail	1.79	15.52	767%
3	USA Today	5.23	29.59	466%
4	Forbes	2.84	15.33	440%
5	BBC News	48.02	252.51	426%
6	The Verge	22.68	116.88	415%
7	New York Magazine	0.44	2.23	407%
8	msnbc	17.18	81.69	375%
9	The Guardian	27.34	127.96	368%
10	Financial Times	14.87	63.46	327%
11	Business Insider	4.8	18.29	281%
12	Sky News	3.11	11.27	262%
13	Le Monde	20.51	71.97	251%
14	PBS NewsHour	11.37	32.38	185%
15	Mashable	144.64	394.04	172%
16	TIME	68.48	183.58	168%
17	NBC News	62.79	142.53	127%
18	Breaking News	70.44	153.55	118%
19	The Wall Street Journal	58.84	126.62	115%
20	CNNMoney	6.99	14.78	111%
21	Los Angeles Times	17.51	36.14	106%
22	CNET	42.22	85.23	102%
23	TechCrunch	53.86	102.27	90%
24	Slate	10.52	19.31	84%
25	The Washington Post	21.65	38.22	77%
26	PBS	23.74	38.64	63%
27	ABC News	33.19	51.16	54%
28	The Boston Globe	5.65	8.46	50%
29	Al Jazeera English	44.76	64.21	43%
30	The Huffington Post	41.41	57.82	40%
31	The Telegraph	2.14	2.98	39%
32	Fox News	34.56	47.63	38%
33	Yahoo! News	23.83	32.51	36%
34	The Next Web	112.36	142.62	27%
35	Bloomberg News	23.77	27.7	17%
36	The Fiscal Times	0.37	0.41	11%
37	Newsweek and The Daily Beast	25.38	26.74	5%
38	Chicago Tribune	9.36	9.75	4%
39	CBS News	20.87	20.69	-1%
40	NPR	78.38	72.71	-7%
41	ReadWriteWeb	11.88	10.62	-11%
42	The New York Times	247.77	161.52	-35%
43	Newser	8.76	5.59	-36%
44	The Atlantic	59.89	32.29	-46%

And the one-year growth rates for total engagement for all posts:

	Google+ Page	Combined Total 1/10/12	Combined Total 1/8/13	One-Year Growth Rate
1	Daily Mail	61	46,397	75961%
2	Forbes	231	30,638	13163%
3	The Economist	1,501	177,486	11725%
4	USA Today	383	26,277	6761%
5	The Guardian	829	44,022	5210%
6	The Verge	10,313	529,693	5036%
7	NBC News	6,383	297,881	4567%
8	CNET	7,519	250,138	3227%
9	Financial Times	1,519	50,007	3192%
10	BBC News	7,213	234,826	3156%
11	PBS NewsHour	1,371	40,472	2852%
12	Business Insider	72	1,829	2440%
13	The Fiscal Times	3	76	2433%
14	ABC News	4,020	100,234	2393%
15	TechCrunch	12,141	273,981	2157%
16	Le Monde	6,810	140,865	1969%
17	New York Magazine	66	1,324	1906%
18	Los Angeles Times	3,293	63,393	1825%
19	CNNMoney	1,620	29,441	1717%
20	The Boston Globe	560	9,707	1633%
21	Chicago Tribune	472	7,775	1547%
22	Sky News	349	5,520	1482%
23	The Washington Post	933	14,751	1481%
24	TIME	7,982	121,158	1418%
25	PBS	3,271	45,942	1305%
26	Mashable	28,142	392,079	1293%
27	The Atlantic	195	2,486	1175%
28	ReadWriteWeb	2,171	25,573	1078%
29	The Next Web	28,723	288,246	904%
30	msnbc	3,703	35,205	851%
31	Fox News	6,333	54,206	756%
32	Breaking News	20,252	159,085	686%
33	The Wall Street Journal	4,182	31,149	645%
34	Newser	1,130	8,392	643%
35	Slate	2,581	19,019	637%
36	The Huffington Post	6,711	44,751	567%
37	NPR	4,047	21,738	437%
38	Al Jazeera English	4,074	16,632	308%
39	Yahoo! News	3,362	13,363	297%
40	The New York Times	6,481	23,259	259%
41	Newsweek and The Daily Beast	2,139	5,884	175%
42	Bloomberg News	499	1,302	161%
43	The Telegraph	49	128	161%
44	CBS News	1,335	2,896	117%

Both comparisons are skewed by the fact that a year ago some of the news sites were just getting started with Google+ and hadn’t made a lot of posts yet. But it is still interesting to see the differences one year later.

CNN International, Anderson Cooper 360, The New Yorker and CNBC are not included in the growth rate tables because they were not part of the 2012 comparison.