The Chicagoist ranks as the #1 independent or "mom and pop" news-related blog/news site in Illinois, according to a new survey by THE iLLINOIS OBSERVER.
(Chicago, IL) – March 24, 2012. THE iLLINOIS OBSERVER today released its second Illinois blog survey since 2009 in which it ranks 67 independent or “mom and pop” Illinois-based blogs that cover Illinois politics and local government news, and we found once again that the Chicagoist headed up the top 10 list.
Independent or “mom and pop” blogs are blogs that are not sponsored by major media companies and their Web sites, such as the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Crain’s, NBC-5 Chicago, etc.
The THE iLLINOIS OBSERVER March 23-24, 2012 survey, which utilized Alexa’s Web site ranking tool, excluded the blogs housed on the Chicago Tribune‘s Web site Chicago Now because no separate rankings were available for the many former, independently sited blogs.
The Alexa web-ranking tool estimates both the global Web site rank and U.S. country rank, a ranking that can fluctuate daily based on traffic flow. One day you’re up, the next you’re down. A blog that has a U.S. rank means that it is generating sufficient traffic to measure its U.S. rank. Blogs with only a “global” rank means that they generating insufficient enough traffic for Alex to measure their U.S. rank.
The Alexa rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors and page views over the past 3 months. The Web site with the highest combination of visitors and page views is ranked #1. Google is the #1 Web site. Facebook is #2.
THE iLLINOIS OBSERVER attempted diligently to identify as many Illinois blogs as possible that provide political news and commentary and that represent some semblance of ideological and geographic balance. Inevitably, we probably overlooked someone. Our apologies.
If there is some gaping omission or quibble with a selection–quibble away. Let us know and we will include the quibbles and other sites in our next survey.
According to the March 23-24, 2012 survey, the top 10 independent or “mom and pop” Illinois blogs that provide news and commentary on Illinois politics and local government as well as the rankings for the other 57 blogs are:
- Chicagoist: 9,554
- Gapers Block: 31,074
- Windy Citizen: 52,817
- Chicago Progressive Talk: 82,267
- Illinois Review: 99,9387
- The Illinois Observer: 117,789
- Capitol Fax: 118,745
- Progress Illinois: 128,165
- Beachwood Reporter: 142,124
- Marathon Pundit: 149,827
- The Chicago Phoenix, 157,519
- The Expired Meter, 174,686
- McHenery County Blog, 195,789
- Center Square Journal, 209,732
- Illinois StateHouse News, 226,701
- Publius Forum, 238,467
- Evanston Now, 249,304
- Peoria Pundit, 265,288
- Roscoe View Journal, 297,945
- Bean Soup Times, 298,465
- Chicago Daily Observer, 325,252
- Illinois Policy Institute Blog, 369,186
- Welles Park Bulldog, 465,635
- Catalyst Chicago, 466,491
- Better Government Association Blog, 466,491
- Civic Federation Blog, 565,004
- Sloopin Chicago’s South Loop, 587,175
- Chicago Talks, 598,501
- Community Media Workshop Blog, 631,349
- OpenlineBlog, 645,726
- Fred Klonsky, 727,246
- First Electronic Newspaper, 740,259
- Southwest Observer, 1,141,010*
- Chicago News Bench, 2,065,730*
- Metropolitan Planning Council, 2,671,137*
- Illinois Issues, 3,195,513*
- Edgeville Buzz, 3,16,315*
- Live Here Oak Park, 3,724,700*
- The Sixth Ward Chicago, 4,598,735*
- Respublica.typepad.com, 4,681,096*
- Grand Old Partisan, 5,047,428*
- Area Chicago, 5,054,293*
- Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, 5,501,779*
- Tenth Congressional District Democrats, 5,693,695*
- Chicago Argus, 5,817,926*
- IADDA Blog, 5,906,493*
- TASC Blog, 5,977,847*
- Backyard Conservative, 6,148,868*
- A-Ville Daily, 6,415,169*
- Team America’s 10th, 7,313,059*
- Bill Baar’s West Side, 7,979,023*
- Hyde Park Progress, 8,208,673*
- Archpundit, 8,935,012*
- 600 Words Esther Cepeda, 9,340,765*
- Prairie State Blue, 9,874,483*
- Sierra Club Illinois, 10,163,002*
- SallyDuros.com, 10,269,091*
- Rogers Park in 1000 Words, 10,467,406*
- Chicago Radio and Media, 13,191,324*
- The Daily Whale Chicago, 13,430,229*
- Latino Policy Forum, 16,138,227*
- Progressive Advocacy, 20,206,745*
- The Decatur Navigator, 20,958,663*
- Quincy Pundit, 22,612,489*
- Russ Stewart, 23,072,761*
- Laura Washington, 23,549,183*
- Lake County Eye, 24,132,409*
*Alexa global score only.
Please send comments to [email protected]
Gov. Pat Quinn
Please include RebelPundit.com we are based in Chicago, and at 155,205 on Alexa.
Posted by RebelPundit | March 29, 2012, 10:26 AMRebel,
When I checked your site on Alexa, it reports “not ranked”. Not ranked sites were not included the in the survey.
David Ormsby
Posted by David Ormsby | March 29, 2012, 10:44 AMNot a big fan of Alexa as a measuring tool, but OpenlineBlog (http://www.openlineblog.com) is one of the top independent news and political blogs, based in Aurora/Naperville.
Posted by Obamax | March 29, 2012, 10:51 PMObamax,
Thank you for alerting us. We have added you to the survey.
Alexa, Compete, etc. are all tools that just estimate. Alexa, unlike Compete, for example, it excludes very, very few from its calculations.
Thank you for reading.
David Ormsby
Posted by David Ormsby | March 30, 2012, 6:39 AM