It’s officially been one year since I started tracking likes for the top newspapers on Facebook.
Before I get to the yearly stats, here are a couple notes from the past month.
- We welcomed six papers to the 10,000-like club, which now has 41 members (it had 9 at this time last year). The new members are: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, San Antonio Express-News, Knoxville News Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
- Perhaps the biggest news is that the Los Angeles Daily News became our final paper to reach 1,000+ likes. It jumped from 951 likes to 1,077.
Year-over-year comparisons
Here are some comparisons from Aug. 1, 2010, to Aug. 1, 2011.
Overall Top 20 – then and now
| Newspaper | Fans 8/10 | Newspaper | Fans 8/11 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Times | 686,401 | New York Times | 1,481,012 | |
| Wall Street Journal | 109,322 | Wall Street Journal | 330,053 | |
| Washington Post | 57,842 | Washington Post | 201,835 | |
| Denver Post | 24,612 | Los Angeles Times | 97,447 | |
| USA Today | 23,308 | Denver Post | 74,394 | |
| Chicago Tribune | 16,911 | USA Today | 66,705 | |
| Los Angeles Times | 15,880 | Boston Globe | 51,291 | |
| Arizona Republic | 14,721 | Chicago Tribune | 36,254 | |
| Times-Picayune | 10,384 | Arizona Republic | 32,999 | |
| Des Moines Register | 8,639 | El Paso Times | 29,411 | |
| Palm Beach Post | 8,241 | Honolulu Star-Advertiser | 28,249 | |
| Knoxville News Sentinel | 7,643 | New York Post | 26,857 | |
| New York Post | 6,599 | Palm Beach Post | 21,227 | |
| Miami Herald | 6,587 | Miami Herald | 20,800 | |
| Detroit News | 6,240 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | 17,773 | |
| San Francisco Chronicle | 6,158 | Atlanta Journal-Constitution | 17,616 | |
| San Antonio Express-News | 6,148 | Times-Picayune | 17,341 | |
| Tennessean | 6,079 | Chattanooga Times Free Press | 16,813 | |
| Daily News | 5,872 | San Jose Mercury News | 16,472 | |
| Atlanta Journal-Constitution | 5,698 | Daily News | 15,942 |
Biggest gainers
Biggest gainers in the past year by percentage of fans (note: not all papers on the list were tracked from the first month).
| Newspaper | Fans 8/10 | Fans 8/11 | % growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake Tribune | 806 | 6,477 | 703.6% |
| Post and Courier (Charleston) | 652 | 4,811 | 637.9% |
| Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | 233 | 1,704 | 631.3% |
| Honolulu Star-Advertiser | 3,939 | 28,249 | 617.2% |
| Los Angeles Times | 15,880 | 97,447 | 513.6% |
| Lexington Herald-Leader | 955 | 5,680 | 494.8% |
| St. Louis Post-Dispatch | 3,095 | 17,773 | 474.2% |
| Florida Times-Union | 1,484 | 8,043 | 442.0% |
| Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era | 652 | 3,295 | 405.4% |
| State (Columbia, S.C.) | 893 | 4,063 | 355.0% |
| Wisconsin State Journal | 662 | 2,970 | 348.6% |
| Boston Herald | 1,354 | 5,744 | 324.2% |
| Chicago Sun-Times | 1,502 | 6,205 | 313.1% |
| New York Post | 6,599 | 26,857 | 307.0% |
| Arizona Daily Star | 474 | 1,897 | 300.2% |
| Omaha World-Herald | 1,157 | 4,459 | 285.4% |
| Buffalo News | 852 | 3,232 | 279.3% |
| Newsday | 4,371 | 15,523 | 255.1% |
| San Jose Mercury News | 4,704 | 16,472 | 250.2% |
Biggest gainers in the past year by number of fans (note: not all papers on the list were tracked from the first month).
| Newspaper | Fans 8/10 | Fans 8/11 | # growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Times | 686,401 | 1,481,012 | 794,611 |
| Wall Street Journal | 109,322 | 330,053 | 220,731 |
| Washington Post | 57,842 | 201,835 | 143,993 |
| Los Angeles Times | 15,880 | 97,447 | 81,567 |
| Denver Post | 24,612 | 74,394 | 49,782 |
| USA Today | 23,308 | 66,705 | 43,397 |
| Honolulu Star-Advertiser | 3,939 | 28,249 | 24,310 |
| New York Post | 6,599 | 26,857 | 20,258 |
| Chicago Tribune | 16,911 | 36,254 | 19,343 |
| Arizona Republic | 14,721 | 32,999 | 18,278 |
| St. Louis Post-Dispatch | 3,095 | 17,773 | 14,678 |
| Miami Herald | 6,587 | 20,800 | 14,213 |
| Palm Beach Post | 8,241 | 21,227 | 12,986 |
| Atlanta Journal-Constitution | 5,698 | 17,616 | 11,918 |
| San Jose Mercury News | 4,704 | 16,472 | 11,768 |
| Newsday | 4,371 | 15,523 | 11,152 |
| Daily News | 5,872 | 15,942 | 10,070 |
| San Francisco Chronicle | 6,158 | 15,066 | 8,908 |
| Austin American-Statesman | 4,569 | 13,321 | 8,752 |
See data on all 100+ newspapers.