Here’s an overview of how Maryland blogs have done from January through April, 2010.
In the first four months of this year, the 45 Maryland state and local blogs that release their site statistics recorded a combined total of 629,307 visits. That is 27% higher than the first four months of 2009 (when they collectively totaled 495,179) and 69% higher than the first four months of 2008 (when they totaled 373,312). The last nine months have been the best period ever in the Maryland blogosphere.
Since 2009, all of the growth in the state’s blogosphere has been in liberal blogs and blogs that cover local areas. Readership in conservative blogs has fallen by 3.4% between the first four months of 2009 and the first four months in 2010.
Here are the top ten state and local political blogs in Maryland, as well as the monthly site visit trend of the top five (MPW, Red Maryland, Annapolis Capital Punishment, PG Politics and Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack) since June 2007. The counts show combined totals over the first four months, while the chart shows monthly visits.
April 2010 produced a temporary spike in MPW’s traffic due to national interest in the blogoscabbing story. Our regular traffic is now on track to be roughly twice the levels of the leading local blogs and three times the levels of the second-ranked political blog.
Here are the top ten locally-focused blogs in Maryland, as well as the monthly site visit trend of the top five (Inside Charm City, Just Up the Pike, Tales of Two Cities, Rockville Central and Rethink College Park) since June 2007.
The big story here is the end of Inside Charm City’s streak as the most-visited local blog since January 2008. Howard County’s Tales of Two Cities passed it in both March and April 2010 and Just Up the Pike passed it in March. These three are now effectively tied as the leading local blogs in the state.
No mainstream media “blogs” release independently verifiable site visit statistics. Neither do Marylandreporter.com or Center Maryland.