The New York Times Is the Website Journalists Link to Most, in 2.8% of News Articles

A reporter writing about a court ruling links to the filing. A sports writer links to the league's statistics page. A political story links to another outlet that broke the news first. Every one of those links is a choice about which source deserves the reader's click, and for the website on the other end, it is one of the most valuable links it can earn.

For a brand, knowing whom journalists link to shows what it takes to be cited. If reporters mostly link to each other, a company competes with the whole press for a reporter's attention. If they link to evidence, such as court records, data and official statements, a company can earn links by publishing the kind of material reporters cite.

Both are true. The New York Times is linked from 85 articles, 2.8% of the total, and the ten most-linked sources are all news or sports media. But company websites receive the most links overall, 44.6%, spread across 1,816 different sites, and 73.3% of all linked websites appear in only one article.

On September 23 and 24, 2026 we collected the 2,987 articles that ranked in the Google News top 10 for 2,000 news searches. We counted how many articles link to each outside website from the story itself, 2,970 different websites in all, and grouped each website by type: news outlet, company or commercial site, government site, university, or nonprofit.

A link counts once per article, so a site linked three times in one story counts as one article. Outside websites are websites run by a different organization from the outlet that published the story. A share of articles is the number of articles linking to a site divided by all 2,987 articles; a share of links is a site type's links divided by all 5,470 links to outside websites.

The New York Times is linked from 85 articles, 2.8% of all news articles. ESPN (64) and USA Today (63) follow, and the wire services Reuters (38) and AP (37) complete the top five. Every one of the ten most-linked sources is a news or sports media site, and 96 of the 150 most-linked websites are news outlets.

Reporters link to other outlets to credit a scoop, point to fuller coverage or cite a wire report. Sport and entertainment stand out: sbnation.com, nfl.com and si.com sit in the top 15 alongside the trade titles Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, because those beats run on scores, casting news and box office figures that one outlet reports and others pick up. Even so, no single source dominates. The 20 most-linked websites together take 12.3% of all links.

Company and commercial websites receive 44.6% of all links from news articles, more than news outlets at 38.9%. The difference is how widely those links are spread. They go to 1,816 different company sites, three times the 593 news outlets that receive links, so the average company site is linked from just over one article.

The most-linked company sites are ones journalists use as evidence or reference: court records on courtlistener.com (19 articles), ticket listings on seatgeek.com (18), code on github.com (14) and odds on fanduel.com (14), followed by amazon.com (13) and flickr.com (12). Across all websites, 73.3% are linked from only one article. For a company, that means a news link is earned one story at a time, and a brand does not need to be famous to get one.

Government websites receive 5.6% of links from news articles and universities 1.6%. The White House (16 articles), the State Department (14) and the National Weather Service (13) lead the government list, followed by NOAA (12) and Congress (9). Cornell (6) and Marist (5), home of a well-known poll, lead the universities. Among nonprofit and .org sites, mozilla.org (10), prx.org (9) and documentcloud.org (9), where reporters publish source documents, are linked most.

These links are about primary sources: a statement, a forecast, a bill, a poll. They show that reporters link out when a page holds the original record, which is the same role a company's own research or data page can play.

Publish the kind of page journalists already cite. The sources that earn news links are those that hold evidence: court records, official statements, forecasts, polls and data. A company page with original numbers, a clear method and a date gives a reporter something to link to instead of just a name to mention.

Plan for one story at a time. With 73.3% of linked websites appearing in only one article, a single well-placed story is the normal way a company earns a news link, and each new data release or expert comment is a fresh chance. Pitch reporters on the beats where your data is the primary source.

Make the linkable page easy to find and stable: a permanent address, a plain summary at the top and charts a reporter can reference. A digital pr agency like Suff Digital builds data studies designed to be cited by the press.

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