BBC Online received more US visitors in March than either of the top US news sites Fox News and The Washington Post, according to web intelligence firm Hitwise.

The BBC and Guardian web sites - both frequently cited as the best examples of UK online news - featured in the top 500 news sites among US surfers. The BBC was the 59th most popular site in the US and first in the UK during March for coverage of the Iraq war. Guardian Unlimited ranked 420th.

In the week following the outbreak of war in Iraq, US traffic to BBC online increased by 47 per cent, and by 83 per cent to Guardian Unlimited.

Australia-based Hitwise has just launched its US operation, which will monitor more than 10 million web users across the United States. Internationally, Hitwise monitors more than 300,000 web sites and gathers information on 25 million web users in six countries.

The firm sells this information to companies such as Panasonic, Honda and Virgin, who tailor their web marketing strategies accordingly.

Last month, BBC director-general Greg Dyke warned against ‘Americanising’ UK media in a speech at Goldsmiths College, London.

Speaking at the journalism symposium, Mr Dyke said that many US news organisations had misjudged their audience. "Since 11th September, many US networks wrapped themselves in the flag and swapped impartiality for gung-ho patriotism," he said.

"If we lose the trust of our audiences, there is no point in the BBC. If Iraq proved anything, it was that the BBC cannot afford to mix patriotism and journalism."

Sources:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/digitalbulletin/news_story.cfm?articleID=179358&Origin=DB08052003
http://argument.independent.co.uk/podium/story.jsp?story=400094
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/SC0305/S00029.htm
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