TMZ, Mainstream Media Get Traffic Boost From Michael Jackson's Death

Posted on June 30, 2009

AOL's TMZ.com website was the first source to report Michael Jackson's death so it not a surprise that HitWise is reporting the site saw record traffic. TMZ leaped into 60th place when ranked by market share of visits on Thursday.

As a result, traffic to TMZ reached a 3 year high, with visits increasing 5x in volume from the previous day. The market share of visits increased 18% above the previous high on February 20, 2009, which took place after TMZ published photos of a bruised Rihanna following the assault by Chris Brown. TMZ was 60th among all websites on Thursday when ranked by the market share of visits, up from 305th on Wednesday, June 24th.

HitWise also reports that mainstream media news websites and Google and Yahoo news search sites also received a traffic boost following Michael Jackson's death. The traffic boost for media outlets will continue for a little while as stories about Michael Jackson's death, health, music sales, children, will and overall oddness continue to be published. Eventually this traffic will slowly fade as people lose interest but Michael Jackson will stay in the news for a while - he was very secretive and there still is a lot about him that remains unknown.