Top online news sources revealed by comScore

The digital world polling company comScore have released a survey of the most popular English language new sites in the World. The New York Times is light years ahead of the competition with 61,964,000 unique visitors.

Astonishingly, it is the UK's Daily Mail that comes second (39,635,000), followed by Huffington Post (38,429,000), The Tribune Newspapers (34,624,000) and at fifth the Guardian (30,891,000).

What isn’t a surprise is that access to content on all of these sites is free. However, increasingly more and more news sites are creating a pay wall and pricing structure to view content.

The Times, for example, have introduced a £1 pound for 24 hours pricing policy (the same price as the daily paper) or a 100 pounds a year subscription.

The New York Times as news sites leaders have introduced a charge for prolific users only ranging from $15 to $35 depending on the number of platforms a reader wishes to access the site.

Much of the print press while celebrating free access rue the day that they ever made content free. Many are waiting for a definitive pricing success and will certainly be watching the trajectory of the Time in the UK and its namesake in the US.

Any glimpses of success will see the competition furiously following suit.

Internet audience for March 2011:

• The New York Times Brand - 61,964
• Mail Online - 39,635
• Huffington Post - 38,429
• Tribune Newspapers - 34,624
• Guardian.co.uk - 30,891
• USA Today Sites - 27,065
• Wall Street Journal Online - 25,323
• Xinhua News Agency - 23,197
• Washingtonpost.com - 21,801
• Advance Internet - 20,279