Washington, D.C. — The Daily Caller celebrated two years online today, with record traffic of over 1.9 million unique visitors during the week of January 2–8. Readership has grown to more than 3.6 million monthly unique visitors, and traffic increased more than 100 percent during 2011.
Founded by journalist Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, former chief policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, The Daily Caller has established itself as a premier source for original reporting on breaking news in the nation’s capital and beyond. In addition to online breaking news, The Daily Caller also offers downloadable iPhone, iPad and Android apps.
Landmark stories broken by reporters at The Daily Caller in the past two years include: the Republican National Committee’s West Hollywood bondage-themed nightclub scandal; an exposé on the now-defunct “JournoList;” NPR executives meeting with individuals they believed to be representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood — resulting in the resignation of then-NPR President Vivian Schiller; the revelation that Rep. Michele Bachman suffers from debilitating stress-induced migraines; and the surge in calls for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation over Operation Fast and Furious.
Key statistics from The Daily Caller on its second anniversary include:
Number of news stories filed on January 11, 2010: 18
Number of news stories filed on January 10, 2012: 33
Total number of news stories filed: 11,698
Total number of unique visitors to DailyCaller.com since January 11, 2010: 36,2545,472
Number of staff reporters who have written original stories for The Daily Caller: 47
Number of opinion contributors to The Daily Caller: 1,568
Number of opinion pieces published: 5,139
“Our first two years are evidence that there is a very large audience looking for new news options,” said Patel. “The Daily Caller team has worked hard to give that audience a good product. We have been rewarded with booming traffic, and we’re in a great position to enter into the coming election year.”
“In just two years, we have established The Daily Caller as a key source of breaking news on the Internet,” said Carlson. “We sent more reporters to Iowa and New Hampshire this month than all but a handful of long-established newspapers. We’re covering a lot of news, and we’re enjoying the hell out of it.”
Other statistics from The Daily Caller on its second anniversary include:
Number of party buses rented: 1 (soon to be 2)
Number of beer kegs consumed from the office kegerator: 48
Number of boxes of Nicorette consumed: 3,823 (all by Tucker, except for 2 consumed by Neil)
Number of empty Mountain Dew bottles in the office at any given time: 26
Number of knees broken: 1
Additionally, The Daily Caller claims the following achievements:
Only leading news website to own the domain name KeithOlbermann.com
Only leading news website to have a section devoted to Guns and Gear
Only leading news website whose editor-in-chief has a pending dinner date with Bill Ayers
Only leading news website whose editor-in-chief competed on “Dancing with the Stars”
Home of the winner of 2011’s “Funniest Celebrity in Washington” contest (TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein)
To kick off the 2012 election year, The Daily Caller has launched a campaign blog of on-the-scene observations.