Audience Overview
Who is the Newsweek audience?
The answer first, the evidence beneath it, and the detail inside every visual. Every figure carries its source and its period.
The audience summary · Jun 26
Newsweek reaches a large, nationally distributed audience with strong concentrations among older, educated and professionally influential readers.
Its total digital footprint extends well beyond the website through social platforms, while politics drives the greatest scale and several service-oriented verticals generate deeper engagement and returning readership.
What the data shows
13.0M site unique visitors and 33.5M total digital reach in Jun 26, with 24.1M reached through social surfaces. News is the largest section at 165.5M section visitors; Family & Parenting returns 58.4% of its visitors.
What the data suggests
Scale and relationship live in different places. The news and politics sections supply reach, while service verticals such as Family & Parenting and Family & Parenting hold attention and bring readers back, which is where a direct relationship is most likely to be built.
What Newsweek could do
Measure the reach sections on distribution value and the service sections on return behaviour, and treat the wider social footprint as an acquisition route into direct, returning readership rather than as a separate audience total.
Site audience declined over the latest measured period, reinforcing the opportunity to convert more of Newsweek’s broader digital reach into direct and returning relationships. Site unique visitors moved from 47.4M in Mar 25 to 13.0M in Jun 26, while minutes per visitor held at 3.81.
- Evidence basis: direct Comscore data
- Evidence basis: Parse.ly section metrics
- Evidence basis: directional Reader Voice research
Source: Comscore, Jun 26. Site unique visitors and total digital reach are separate measures. Each source reports on its own period and figures are never combined.
Newsweek’s digital footprint
These audiences may overlap and should not be added together.
Engagement
Time measures, reported separately from audience reach.
Audience Signature
What makes this audience different from everyone else's?
Against us adults 18+, 55-64 yrs old is the audience's most distinctive attribute at an index of 162. Seniority, post-graduate education and political interest form the spine of the profile; under-25s and local news are the structural gaps.
Compared with
Adults 18+ · index 100
Showing
10 of 63 attributes, the 10 strongest differentiators
Index 100 is the benchmark supplied in the export. No competitor benchmark was included in the pilot pack, so competitive comparison is unavailable.
- Definition
- Index = Newsweek composition on an attribute ÷ benchmark composition × 100. An index of 140 means the attribute is 1.4× as common in the Newsweek audience as in the benchmark.
- Base
- Comscore Plan Metrix, US Adults 18+, desktop and mobile. 15-month average, Mar 2025 to May 2026.
- Limitation
- Comscore composition is a modelled panel estimate. Differences inside ±5 index points are not meaningful, and index says nothing about absolute size — always read the dot size with the position.
Show the underlying values
| Attribute | Newsweek % | Adults 18+ % | Index | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55-64 yrs old | 27.4% | 16.9% | 162 | 9.7M |
| Baby Boomers (1946 - 1964) | 35.2% | 22.4% | 157 | 12.6M |
| 18-24 yrs old | 6.1% | 13.6% | 45 | 2.4M |
| 65+ yrs old | 25.6% | 16.6% | 154 | 9M |
| Gen Z (1997 - 2012) | 10.1% | 20.8% | 49 | 3.7M |
| 25-34 yrs old | 10% | 18.8% | 53 | 3.7M |
| Other | 1.4% | 2.5% | 56 | 0.5M |
| Retired | 29.1% | 21% | 139 | 10.4M |
| Black/African American | 7% | 11.1% | 63 | 2.5M |
| Sustainability Professional | 1% | 1.6% | 63 | 0.4M |
| Student | 10.9% | 16.8% | 65 | 4M |
| All (Healthy Living) | 95.6% | 71.4% | 134 | 34.3M |
| Human Resources/Payroll | 0.8% | 0.6% | 133 | 0.3M |
| Millennials/Gen Y (1981 - 1996) | 20.5% | 29.5% | 69 | 7.5M |
| All (Travel) | 96% | 74.2% | 129 | 34.4M |
| Yes | 8.9% | 12.1% | 74 | 3.2M |
| New England | 6.5% | 5.2% | 125 | 2.4M |
| Generation X (1965 - 1980) | 32.7% | 26.1% | 125 | 11.6M |
| All (Personal Finance) | 97.3% | 79.1% | 123 | 35M |
| Married | 44% | 36.1% | 122 | 15.7M |
| Employed part-time for pay (under 35 hours per week) | 14.8% | 19% | 78 | 5.3M |
| East South Central | 4.4% | 5.6% | 79 | 1.6M |
| 35-44 yrs old | 13.9% | 17.3% | 80 | 5.1M |
| Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 0.8% | 1% | 80 | 0.3M |
| Two | 38.8% | 32.5% | 119 | 14M |
| All (Sports) | 99.2% | 83.9% | 118 | 35.6M |
| Four | 15.3% | 18.4% | 83 | 5.5M |
| Five or more | 14.5% | 17.2% | 84 | 5.4M |
| Somewhat conservative | 17.9% | 15.4% | 116 | 6.5M |
| All (News and Politics) | 99.7% | 85.9% | 116 | 35.8M |
| Consultant | 1.1% | 1.3% | 85 | 0.4M |
| Pacific | 13.7% | 15.9% | 86 | 4.8M |
| Republican | 28.6% | 25.4% | 113 | 10.2M |
| Very liberal | 11.1% | 12.5% | 89 | 4M |
| Analyst / Associate | 3.1% | 3.5% | 89 | 1.1M |
| Financial Services | 1% | 0.9% | 111 | 0.4M |
| Three | 17.3% | 19.2% | 90 | 6.2M |
| Mid Atlantic | 14.7% | 13.4% | 110 | 5.5M |
| Female | 53.3% | 49.7% | 107 | 19.3M |
| Male | 46.7% | 50.3% | 93 | 16.6M |
| Middle of the road | 42.6% | 45.7% | 93 | 15.4M |
| Somewhat liberal | 12.5% | 11.7% | 107 | 4.5M |
| Very conservative | 16% | 14.9% | 107 | 5.6M |
| East North Central | 13.4% | 14.3% | 94 | 4.8M |
| Urban | 33.7% | 35.9% | 94 | 12.1M |
| Democrat | 33.8% | 32% | 106 | 12.2M |
| $200,000 or more | 13.1% | 13.8% | 95 | 4.8M |
| Mountain | 7.8% | 7.4% | 105 | 2.8M |
| South Atlantic | 21.2% | 20.2% | 105 | 7.5M |
| West North Central | 6.7% | 6.4% | 105 | 2.4M |
| Suburban | 45.9% | 43.7% | 105 | 16.5M |
| Executive (C-Level) | 3.7% | 3.9% | 95 | 1.3M |
| Management (VP, Director, Manager) | 6.8% | 6.5% | 105 | 2.5M |
| One | 14.1% | 13.5% | 104 | 4.9M |
| $500,000 or more | 7.7% | 8% | 96 | 2.6M |
| Rural | 18.1% | 17.4% | 104 | 6.5M |
| Independent | 25.2% | 26.3% | 96 | 9M |
| Employed full-time for pay (35 hours or more per week) | 36.3% | 35.3% | 103 | 13.1M |
| 45-54 yrs old | 17% | 16.7% | 102 | 6.1M |
| Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander | 5.1% | 5% | 102 | 2M |
| $100,000 or more | 46.1% | 45.2% | 102 | 16.9M |
| West South Central | 11.7% | 11.7% | 100 | 4.1M |
| Healthcare Practitioner and Technical | 1.5% | 1.5% | 100 | 0.6M |
Scale versus Relationship
Where does scale turn into a relationship, and where does it not?
News sits far right: 165.5M section visitors, more than any other, at 1.12 engaged minutes each. Family & Parenting sits in the opposite corner — a fraction of the reach, the strongest engaged minutes per visitor. The quadrant a section occupies should decide what it is measured on.
Relationship measured by
Sections shown
Axis scale
Bubble size
Scale leaders
Largest section visitor counts.
Relationship builders
Highest returning share.
Emerging opportunities
Below median reach, above median minutes / visitor.
- No section qualifies right now.
Ranked by minutes / visitor
Select any section — on the plot or in the list — to open its full behaviour profile.
- Definition
- Visitors and views are Parse.ly section aggregates for the period. Engaged minutes per visitor is total engaged minutes divided by section visitors. Returning share is returning visitors divided by section visitors.
- Base
- newsweek.com sections, 31 Jul 2025 to 31 Jul 2026
- Limitation
- Section-level, not article-level. A visitor can appear in several sections, so sections never sum to a site total, and Parse.ly figures are never compared with Comscore. 108 low-volume or non-editorial sections are held back from this view.
Show the underlying values
| Section | Visitors | Minutes / visitor | Views | Posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| News | 165.5M | 1.12 | 357.1M | 113,523 |
| U.S. | 67.2M | 0.98 | 122.3M | 96,419 |
| Politics | 54.2M | 1.07 | 109.0M | 22,593 |
| World | 20.3M | 1.01 | 36.1M | 55,408 |
| Life | 17.3M | 1.14 | 33.7M | 4,729 |
| Family & Parenting | 13.6M | 1.61 | 34.0M | 5,128 |
| Pets | 10.8M | 1.18 | 25.6M | 3,889 |
| Entertainment | 10.4M | 0.78 | 13.9M | 13,584 |
| Sports | 9.7M | 1.09 | 17.4M | 17,215 |
| Travel | 5.4M | 0.77 | 7.3M | 1,827 |
| Health | 4.8M | 0.89 | 6.4M | 5,544 |
| Personal Finance | 3.6M | 0.68 | 4.3M | 527 |
| Business | 3.2M | 0.59 | 4.0M | 3,765 |
| Culture | 2.9M | 0.82 | 4.3M | 41,634 |
| Education | 1.2M | 0.71 | 1.6M | 686 |
| Tech & Science | 0.7M | 0.55 | 0.9M | 14,857 |
| Technology | 0.0M | 0.66 | 0.0M | 26 |
Competitive comparison
How does Newsweek compare with the brands it competes against?
The imported Comscore data covers the Newsweek entity only, so no competitor is shown. Newsweek's own comparable measures for Jun 26 are below, alongside the exact competitive fields needed to switch this panel into audience scale, audience quality and “where Newsweek wins” comparison modes.
Newsweek, comparable measures · Jun 26
- Site unique visitors
- 13.0M
- Total digital reach
- 33.5M
- Social unique visitors
- 24.1M
- Minutes per visitor
- 3.81
Comscore, monthly, US adults 18+
Site and other measured digital surfaces
Measured social surfaces
Total minutes ÷ unique visitors
Trend basis: Mar 25 to Jun 26. Source: Comscore, Jun 26. Site unique visitors and total digital reach are separate measures.
Requires additional data
Three comparison modes are built and waiting for a competitive export: audience scale, audience quality, and an indexed “Where Newsweek wins” matrix. Each becomes available as soon as the matching fields are imported.
Competitive Benchmarking
One row per competitor per month: unique visitors, reach of US adults, total minutes and minutes per visitor, at the same entity level as Newsweek.
Unlocks: Audience scale and Audience quality comparison modes.
Competitor UV Trends
Monthly unique visitors for each competitor over the same period as the Newsweek trend.
Unlocks: Trend-on-trend comparison and share-of-set movement.
Competitor Total Digital Reach
Total digital reach per competitor, so site and wider footprint are compared like for like.
Unlocks: The “Where Newsweek wins” indexed matrix.
Competitor Plan Metrix composition
Age, income, education and political outlook composition per competitor, on the same 15-month basis as the Newsweek signature.
Unlocks: Indexed audience-quality comparison rather than raw scale.
- Definition
- Comparison requires every brand to be measured at the same entity level, on the same universe and in the same month. Mixing entity levels produces a comparison that looks precise and is not.
- Base
- United States, adults 18+, desktop and mobile.
- Limitation
- No competitor values are held in the current import. Rather than estimate them, the panel reports Newsweek's own measures and the fields required to complete the comparison.
Reader Voice Explorer
What are readers telling us, in their own words?
The founding cohort is 3 interviews and 17 coded excerpts. The most frequently coded theme is “Product opportunity”, in 3 excerpts across 3 of 3 interviews. At this size these are hypotheses to test, not findings.
Group excerpts by
Tile size and type scale carry how often a code appears, the edge colour is the coded tone, and the second figure is how many of the 3 interviews it came from.
Coded theme
Product opportunity
3 coded excerpts · 3 of 3 interviews · coded tone mixed
Select an excerpt for its full context, or open Reader Voice in full.
Evidence base · 3 interviews · 17 coded excerpts · 17 direct quotations · 17 awaiting research-owner approval
- Definition
- Each tile counts coded excerpts carrying that code, with the number of distinct interviews they came from. Counts are of excerpts and interviews, never of readers.
- Base
- 3 interviews, 17 coded excerpts
- Limitation
- Three interviews cannot establish how common a view is. Nothing here is projectable to the audience and no figure may be used as a percentage.
Show the underlying values
| Coded theme | Excerpts | Interviews | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product opportunity | 3 | 3 | Mixed |
| Brand perception | 2 | 2 | Positive |
| Reader need | 2 | 2 | Positive |
| Brand value | 2 | 2 | Positive |
| Trust and credibility | 2 | 1 | Positive |
| Industry tension | 1 | 1 | Critical |
| Content preference | 1 | 1 | Positive |
| Content value | 1 | 1 | Positive |
| Subscription motivation | 1 | 1 | Positive |
| Customer experience | 1 | 1 | Critical |
| Reader motivation | 1 | 1 | Positive |
What this means for Newsweek
The implications below change with the team. The metrics and visualizations above do not.
Scale and relationship sit in different sections, and return behaviour varies far more than reading time.
- 01
Judge service sections on return behaviour rather than on volume against News.
- 02
Request article-level Parse.ly data with session paths so returns can be traced to a story.
- 03
Test one follow-along format against the strongest returning sections.