Thank Cho Seung-Hui for your traffic spike

-NEIL YOSHIDA We were wondering how long it would have taken for someone to point out how others are benefiting from the Virginia Tech murders. Mediaweek's Mike Shields takes us through how traffic has picked up at major online news portals as the story unfolds. Why do we feel that somewhere at each of the major websites mentioned in Shields' article some sick individual is saying or has said, "If only we could get a story like this every month". But its not geometry, major events brings more traffic and/or newscast viewership. Category leader Yahoo News saw its audience swell 13 percent to more than 8 million uniques on Monday versus the previous week. Meanwhile, MSNBC.com and CNN.com experienced monster gains, as their unique audiences surged by 47 percent and 45 percent respectively. Each site continued to see its total user base grow on Tuesday as more details of the story emerged, with Yahoo and MSNBC’s unique audiences hitting 8.5 and 8.4 million uniques that day. Web Traffic Surges As Virginia Tech Story Unravels [Mediaweek]