Total readership of government shutdown and general news articles
Total unique visits to articles in the first week of publication from more than 5,000 U.S. media publications; Daily, Sept. 18 to Oct. 7, 2025
A stacked column chart of the total unique visits to news articles about the government shutdown compared to general news from more than 5,000 media publications each day from September 18 to October 7, 2025. Overall readership was highest at 55 million visits on September 19 when Jimmy Kimmel was suspended and the 24th when he was reinstated and on October 3 when Taylor Swift released her new album. News about the government shutdown has been a very small part of the overall readership compared to general news.
