In order to provide a more accurate guide for SquirrelPR clients in their media relations planning, we conducted our first independent analysis of Nigeria’s top-ranking news websites to determine who got the most eyeballs between January and March 2023.

We anaylsed traffic volumes of 137 online news websites leveraging their Google Analytics traffic data across different categories including News and Current Affairs, Business and Finance, Technology and Startups, and Entertainment and Lifestyle.

The ranking focused on total monthly visits, the total traffic volume for Nigeria as well as the news website’s performance in the country compared to its peers based on the volume of readership from Nigeria.

Our report shows that out of the 69 ranked news websites under News and Current Affairs category, only 30% generate above one million monthly visits. The top five most visited online news websites in Nigeria attract between 9 – 14 million monthly visits. These include legit.ng, punchng.com, dailypost.ng, vanguardngr.com, and lindaikejisblog.com.

We also looked into Nigeria’s top-ranking news websites under the Business and Finance category, and our report shows that out of the 18 prominent online business news websites that were ranked, only 16.75% attracted more than one million visits within the period under review. The top-ranked in this category include nairametrics.com, businessday.ng, and Africa.businessinsider.com.

The Technology category focused on news platforms with a preponderance of content on startups, the information technology industry, gadgets, etc. A total of 27 platforms were ranked. Out of these, only the traditional mainstream publishers with equally strong coverage of the tech sector attracted monthly visits of millions.

Of the niche tech news platforms ranked, naijaknowhow.net, techcabal.com, gadgetstripe.com, techpoint.africa, and mobilityarena.com gross at least 700,000 monthly visits and proved to be Nigeria’s top-ranking news websites specifically for the tech niche category.

No fewer than 25 platforms were ranked under the Entertainment and Lifestyle category. Out of these, 75% attract more than 1 million monthly visits.

Also read, Nigeria’S 12 Most Influential National Newspapers

Speaking on the report, the co-founder of SuirrelPR, James Ezechukwu said the report was the first comprehensive ranking report prepared by SquirrelPR and that it was “inspired by the need to serve our clients that are constantly worried about which news platforms to prioritise in their placements”.

“We understand that there are thousands of news websites that serve all kinds of information to the Nigerian audience but for the purpose of this report, we focused only on platforms that serve news of several varieties and attract more than 10,000 monthly visits. We foraged over 400 news websites but we eventually settled for only the ones with at least 10,000 monthly visits,” Ezechukwu explained.

If you need the full report and other data-driven insights targeted at optimising media reach in your campaigns, sign up on SquirrelPR here