As traffic to U.S. newspaper Web sites surged in October, more people visited NYTimes.com than any other newspaper site in the country, according to new data from Nielsen Online.

The number of unique monthly visitors to NYTimes.com jumped from 14.6 million in September to 17.5 million in October.

Others in the top 30 include The San Diego Union-Tribune with 2.2 milion uniques, compared to 1.5 million in September, likely due to the paper's coverage on California wild fires; the new D.C. newspaper Politico; and Azcentral.com, The Arizona Republic's Web site, which had most time spent by users in the top 30.

The custom-made list from Nielsen for Editor & Publisher is as follows:

Top 30 Newspaper Web Sites, October 2007

Brand or Channel - Unique Audience (000) - Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)

NYTimes.com - 17,502 - 0:34:53
USATODAY.com - 9,469 - 0:16:13
washingtonpost.com - 8,681 - 0:17:22
Wall Street Journal Online - 5,867 - 0:14:19
LA Times - 5,812 - 0:09:51

Boston.com - 5,506 - 0:14:17
New York Post - 3,796 - 0:12:36
Chicago Tribune - 3,640 - 0:08:35
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle - 3,609 - 0:11:55
Daily News Online Edition - 3,502 - 0:06:21

The Houston Chronicle - 2,825 - 0:15:36
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - 2,592 - 0:21:27
Newsday - 2,577 - 0:06:49
Chicago Sun-Times - 2,570 - 0:08:18
Village Voice Media - 2,378 - 0:04:23

The San Diego Union-Tribune - 2,292 - 0:13:33
NJ.com - 2,153 - 0:11:22
Azcentral.com - 2,115 - 0:39:16
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 2,109 - 0:07:21
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News - 2,044 - 0:04:00

The Seattle Times - 1,969 - 0:07:03
International Herald Tribune - 1,899 - 0:02:20
MercuryNews.com - 1,825 - 0:04:44
The Politico - 1,645 - 0:08:59
Sun-Sentinel - 1,597 - 0:07:53

Star Tribune - 1,564 - 0:27:40
MiamiHerald.com - 1,549 - 0:03:05
Philly.com - 1,492 - 0:08:04
The Washington Times - 1,454 - 0:03:04
Baltimore Sun - 1,324 – 0:07:13