Raw Story’s 2014 traffic explosion makes it the top independent progressive news site in the U.S.

January 14, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For savvy online news junkies, RawStory.com is the place to be. According to statistics released today by the online news site, visitor traffic more than doubled in 2014.

Raw Story produced record growth in 2014, building to an average monthly audience of 11.2 million readers – a 65 percent increase in readership over 2013. The 10-year old online progressive news site also reported today that:

• Pageviews to RawStory.com reached an all-time high of more than 322 million for the year, a 32 percent increase over 2013
• A redesigned, mobile-first, responsive site helped catapult Raw Story into Quantcast’s top 100 list of all mobile sites in the U.S (as of December 31, 2014)
• African-American readership of Raw Story rose to 13 percent of total audience, while reach to highly-coveted readers under the age of 44 grew to an impressive 63 percent
• Raw Story’s deep reach among influentials on social media has increased the publication’s impact on an audience of more than 24 million monthly

“To achieve this kind of growth with a virtual office and an outside-the-Beltway staff of ten employees is a testament to our editorial team’s talent at finding small, but important stories and raising them to national prominence,” said Raw Story publisher Roxanne Cooper. “It is also a demonstration of our social media prowess.”

Prominent Raw Story articles produced during 2014 included a widely-regarded feature by Jennifer Mascia, “Who gets shot in America: What I learned compiling records of carnage for the New York Times,” and original reporting on America’s growing Sovereign Citizens’ movement, most notably represented by Nevada’s Cliven Bundy. Raw Story was the first to reveal that Chicago's notorious "paper terrorist" Cherron Phillips had an earlier life -- mother to the child of 1990s NBA legend Nick Anderson.

Raw Story did the first interview with actor Adam Baldwin about his controversial support of the Gamergate movement. Glenn Beck's claim that he suffered from "adrenal fatigue" was debunked by Raw Story's interview with a Yale University neurologist. A report on Bill Maher’s on-air clash with Ben Affleck over Islam was shared 181,866 times on Facebook and 4,502 times on Twitter.

Beating ESPN the Magazine and Sports Illustrated to one of the strangest sports stories of the year, Raw Story got two exclusive interviews with a potential NFL draft choice, Adam Muema, to learn why he gave up everything to follow a bizarre Illinois cult leader named Lord RayEl.

Raw Story exposed the unusual and weird, and scored a big hit when it learned that Kate Mulgrew -- the actress who portrayed Star Trek's Kathryn Janeway -- had provided narration for a film that was produced by geocentrists who are still convinced the Sun revolves around the Earth.

"Raw Story punched above its weight all year, overtaking websites employing much bigger staffs with our phenomenal traffic," said executive editor Tony Ortega. "We're committed to stories that push back against the mainstream media's fake objectivity and the conservative media's noisy echo chamber -- and readers responded by coming to us in droves."

A copy of Raw Story’s media kit may be downloaded here.

For more information or to set up an interview with a Raw Story spokesperson, please contact David McBrayer at 202-538-0274 or press@rawstory.com.

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Founded in Boston in 2004, Raw Story has grown from a pure play political site to a progressive news powerhouse that reaches more than 11 million readers per month. Recent focal points have included gun violence, police abuse of power, Gamergate, the Sovereign Citizens’ movement, Islamophobia and church-state separation issues. We’re also dedicated to universal human rights and telling the stories of those disenfranchised by mainstream media.

Raw Story boasts editors and regular contributors in New York, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and California.