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Fact check: What are the top liberal news outlets in the US by circulation as of 2025?
Executive Summary
As of the provided materials, there is no comprehensive, dated ranking of the “top liberal news outlets in the US by circulation as of 2025”; the sources repeatedly identify prominent outlets with a liberal tilt but do not supply the circulation figures needed to produce a definitive 2025 list. Multiple datasets and lists name The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, MSNBC, Salon and others as liberal-leaning or high-traffic news properties, yet the available items focus on web traffic rankings, general site lists, or descriptive listings rather than audited circulation numbers required to rank outlets by 2025 print or digital circulation [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What sources actually claim: prominence without circulation numbers
Across the materials, the recurring claim is that The New York Times and The Washington Post are leading national outlets with liberal-leaning reputations and large audiences, and that other outlets such as HuffPost, Salon, Mother Jones, and MSNBC are commonly listed as liberal sources. The traffic-focused sources place The New York Times and CNN among the highest-visited news sites, with Fox News also highly ranked, but these sources emphasize overall traffic or ranking lists updated in 2025 rather than explicit "liberal" circulation standings. Multiple items explicitly state they do not provide circulation figures, limiting their utility for a precise 2025 circulation ranking [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
2. Why the available datasets fall short: web visits vs. audited circulation
The provided analyses make clear that most cited materials report web traffic, site visits, or general audience reach metrics rather than verified circulation numbers such as Audit Bureau figures for print or standardized digital subscription counts for 2025. Traffic lists and “top sites” roundups (dated mid-2025 and October 2025 in the dataset) are useful to gauge relative online prominence, but they do not equate to audited circulation nor disaggregate audiences by political leaning. This distinction matters because a publication’s editorial slant does not directly measure its paid circulation, and the sources repeatedly acknowledge that the numbers needed to rank by circulation are absent [6] [2].
3. Divergent lists of liberal outlets: overlapping names, varying definitions
The supplied sources converge on a core set of outlets labeled “liberal” — The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, Salon, Mother Jones, The Daily Kos, and MSNBC — yet membership varies by list and by the list’s purpose (news site traffic lists vs. curated liberal media lists). Some sources prioritize legacy national papers while others include digital-native progressive outlets. The variation reflects differing editorial criteria: some lists emphasize audience size and general reputation, others focus on progressive editorial stance or mission, and none provide the exact circulation counts for 2025 needed to produce an ordered ranking [7] [5] [3].
4. Time stamps matter: what the dataset’s dates imply about 2025 coverage
The dataset includes items dated between January and October 2025; the October 2025 entries are traffic updates that reaffirm which sites were most visited that month, placing The New York Times among the top. However, traffic snapshots in October 2025 cannot substitute for annual audited circulation figures, and they may reflect short-term changes tied to news cycles. The sources themselves state they present “top websites” updated monthly or list liberal outlets as a category, signaling that while the data are recent through 2025, they are not designed to answer a circulation-ranking question explicitly [2] [1].
5. What is missing to create a definitive 2025 circulation ranking
To answer the original question authoritatively, one needs standardized, audited circulation metrics — for example, verified print circulation from an industry auditor and subscription totals for digital paid circulation, each dated and disclosed for 2025, plus a clearly stated methodology for combining print and digital figures. None of the provided analyses include such audited figures or a methodology for reconciling different audience metrics, making any attempt to present a top-by-circulation list speculative based on the current materials [6] [2] [4].
6. Practical next steps and transparent caveats for a proper ranking
A responsible path forward requires obtaining audited circulation or subscription reports for 2025 from primary industry sources and combining them with clearly defined rules for inclusion (e.g., paid circulation only, or paid + unique monthly visitors). Until such data are supplied, the most accurate statement supported by the materials is that The New York Times and The Washington Post are repeatedly identified as leading liberal-leaning national outlets in 2025, and several digital progressive sites are frequently listed, but a ranked list by circulation cannot be produced from these sources alone [3] [7] [5].