Three major outlets experienced sudden swings in their audiences this year—changes that align almost perfectly with how often they were promoted on some of the biggest news aggregators. Newsweek’s traffic plunged in April after steady promotion the month prior. Qatari-backed Al Jazeera saw its readership explode in March. And leftist outlet The Minnesota Star Tribune rode a steep wave upward in January before bottoming out again the next month. The timing was too consistent to ignore.
