World News

Marking the end of Ethiopian Year, it is time to look back and give ranking to the 25 best Ethiopian news media sources in the world with focus on Ethiopia. nazret.com is the most popular Ethiopian website according to Alexa, and it is not included in this ranking.

The ranking will be based on 10 important measurements. The grading system gives a score of 10 points if the media is excellent and a score of 0 (Zero) points if it is poor. Many Ethiopians from all political, religious, ethnic and other backgrounds are surveyed to get these comprehensively and thoroughly graded scores. And since the grading system uses 10 qualities or measurements, the maximum score possible is 100 points.

These top 25 news websites and newspapers are:

1) Addis Neger 79.5 points
2) Addis Fortune 74 points
3) Addis Admass 70.5 points
4) Reporter 70 points
5) Ethiopia Zare 69.5 points
6) Ethiopian Review 69 points
7) Abbi Weekly 68.5 points
8) Jimma Times 68 points
9) Capital 66 points
10) Informer 65.5 points
11) Abugida Info 65 points
12) Ethioforum 64.5 points
13) Daily Monitor 64 points
14) Tadias 63.5 points
15) Oromoindex 63 points
16) Ethiopia First 62.5 points
17) Ethiomedia 61 points
18) Abbay Media 59.5 points
19) Mahder 58 points
20) Addis Voice (tie) 57 points
21) Ethio-lion (tie) 57 points
22) Ethio-politics 56.5 points
23) Gadaa 56 points
24) Aigaforum 54.5 points
25) Cyberethiopia 53.5 points

Addis Neger

Influential: 10 points
Independence: 9 points
Design: 6.5 points
Originality: 9.5 points
News Content diversity: 9 points
Language diversity: 7 points
Multimedia variety: 7 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 9.5 points
Regularity: 6 points
TOTAL=79.5 points
Comments: Very High degree of independence. Known for its very courageous journalists. Its newspaper version is arguably the #1 most popular newspaper inside Ethiopia. Its Amharic prints have the highest circulation, distributed to almost every region of Ethiopia. www.edaoo.com/ANN/news.do

Addis Fortune

Influential: 8 points
Independence: Score 7 points
Design: 8.5 points
Originality: 9.5 points
News Content diversity: 8 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 8.5 points
Creativity: 8.5 points
Popularity: 7 points
Regularity: 5 points
TOTAL= 74 points
Comments: Great design, the largest English language private newspaper in Ethiopia.

Addis Admass

Influential: 8.5 points
Independence: 7 points
Design: 6 points
Originality: 9.5 points
News Content diversity: 7 points
Language diversity: 6.5 points
Multimedia variety: 6 points
Creativity: 7 points
Popularity: 8 points
Regularity: 5 points
Total=70.5 points
Comments: Excellent contents, the biggest Amharic language private paper for many years. Very original and researched articles www.addisadmass.com

Reporter

Influential: 7.5 points
Independence: 6.5 points
Design: 7.5 points
Originality: 8.5 points
News Content diversity: 6.5 points
Language diversity: 7.5 points
Multimedia variety: 7 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 7.5 points
Regularity: 5.5 points
Total= 70 points
Comments: Two-language newspaper in Ethiopia known for its classified ads for employment seekers. Some Editorials written from the ideological perspective of the ruling party of Ethiopia. www.ethiopianreporter.com

Ethiopia Zare

Influential: 7.5 points
Independence: 7.5 points
Design: 7 points
Originality: 8 points
News Content diversity: 6 points
Language diversity: 6 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 6.5 points
Popularity: 8 points
Regularity: 6.5 points
Total= 69.5 points
Comments: One of the two best Amharic language news websites. www.ethiopiazare.com

Ethiopian Review

Influential: 8 points
Independence: 6 points
Design: 7 points
Originality: 6 points
News Content diversity: 6.5 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 8 points
Creativity: 6.5 points
Popularity: 8.5 points
Regularity: 8.5 points
Total= 69 points
Comments: Highly read. It has political commentaries – from the political perspective of Ethiopian opposition forces and Eritrea's government – which educate, entertain and influence people. www.ethiopianreview.com

Abbi Weekly

Influential: 6.5 points
Independence: 7 points
Design: 6 points
Originality: 9 points
News Content diversity: 7.5 points
Language diversity: 6.5 points
Multimedia variety: 7.5 points
Creativity: 7 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 5 points
Total= 68.5 points
Comments: Very informative media from Ethiopia. Publishes original news articles and commentaries in Amharic. www.abbimedia.com.et/abbiweekly/index.php

Jimma Times

Influential: 6.5 points
Independence: 9 points
Design: 6.5 points
Originality: 7 points
News Content diversity: 7 points
Language diversity: 7 points
Multimedia variety: 6 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 6.5 points
Total=68 points
Comments: Very independent and multi-language. The first private newspaper inside Ethiopia using Afan Oromo alphabet. www.jimmatimes.com

Capital

Influential: 8 points
Independence: 7 points
Design: 6.5 points
Originality: 9.5 points
News Content diversity: 7.5 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 5.5 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 5 points

Total=66 points
Comments: Focused on business news, very informative. www.capitalethiopia.com

Informer

Influential: 7 points
Independence: 8 points
Design: 7 points
Originality: 8.5 points
News Content diversity: 7.5
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 4.5 points
Total= 65.5 points
Comments: Newspaper covers many African countries around Ethiopia. www.ssinformer.com

Abugida Info

Influential: 7.5 points
Independence: 6 points
Design: 7.5 points
Originality: 5.5 points
News Content diversity: 6
Language diversity: 4
Multimedia variety: 8.5 points
Creativity: 6.5 points
Popularity: 7.5 points
Regularity: 6 points
Total= 65 points
Comments: Provides news in a variety of ways. www.abugidainfo.com

Ethioforum

Influential: 8 points
Independence: 6 points
Design: 6 points
Originality: 7 points
News Content diversity: 6 points
Language diversity: 5 points
Multimedia variety: 5 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 8.5 points
Regularity: 7 points
Total=64.5 points
Comments: Provides very high originality for a Diaspora based media. Very Influential. www.ethioforum.org

Daily Monitor (TIE)

Influential: 7 points
Independence: 7.5 points
Design: 6.5 points
Originality: 8 points
News Content diversity: 6 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 5.5 points
Popularity: 6 points
Regularity: 7 points
Total= 64 points
Comments: Decent quality newspaper from Ethiopia. www.theafricamonitor.com

Tadias

Influential: 6 points
Independence: 8 points
Design: 7 points
Originality: 7 points
News Content diversity: 7 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 6 points
Regularity: 6 points
Total= 63.5 points
Comments: Great magazine with professional staff. Focused on Diaspora news and slowly growing in popularity. www.tadias.com

Oromoindex

Influential: 5.5 points
Independence: 7.5 points
Design: 7 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 6 points
Language diversity: 6 points
Multimedia variety: 7 points
Creativity: 6.5 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 6 points
Total=63 points
Comments: Provides a variety of mediums. Oromo-centered media but entertains diverse news articles and commentaries. www.oromoindex.com

Ethiopia First

Influential: 7 points
Independence: 7.5 points
Design: 5 points
Originality: 6.5 points
News Content diversity: 7 points
Language diversity: 5 points
Multimedia variety: 5.5 points
Creativity: 5.5 points
Popularity: 7 points
Regularity: 6.5 points
Total= 62.5 points
Comments: Entertains diverse views from external sources. www.ethiopiafirst.com

Ethiomedia

Influential: 8 points
Independence: 6.5 points
Design: 5 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 6 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 5 points
Creativity: 5 points
Popularity: 9 points
Regularity: 7.5 points
Total= 61 points
Comments: Very influential. Its political commentaries educate many people and attract many Ethiopians around the world. www.ethiomedia.com

Abbay Media

Influential: 5 points
Independence: 6 points
Design: 7.5 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 5.5 points
Language diversity: 4 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 7 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 6.5 points
Total= 59.5 points
Comments: Very well custom designed website with external news feeds and with articles & documents on current events. www.abbaymedia.com

Mahder

Influential: 4.5 points
Independence: 6 points
Design: 7.5 points
Originality: 5.5 points
News Content diversity: 5.5 points
Language diversity: 7 points
Multimedia variety: 6.5 points
Creativity: 7 points
Popularity: 3.5 points
Regularity: 5 points
Total= 58 points
Comments: Provides a variety of articles, including in Amharic. www.mahder.com

Addis Voice (tie)

Influential: 6.5 points
Independence: 6.5 points
Design: 5 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 5.5 points
Language diversity: 4.5 points
Multimedia variety: 6 points
Creativity: 5.5 points
Popularity: 7 points
Regularity: 5.5 points
Total= 57 points
Comments: Good source of selected news articles from various outside sources, with some commentaries from the political perspective of opposition groups. www.addisvoice.com

Ethio-lion (tie)

Influential: 6.5 points
Independence: 6.5 points
Design: 5.5 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 4 points
Language diversity: 6.5 points
Multimedia variety: 5.5 points
Creativity: 5 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 6 points
Total= 57 points
Comments: Collects news from outside sources. It also publishes Amharic articles and other commentaries from various external sources. www.ethiolion.com

Ethio-politics

Influential: 5 points
Independence: 6.5 points
Design: 5.5 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 5.5 points
Language diversity: 4.5 points
Multimedia variety: 6 points
Creativity: 6 points
Popularity: 6.5 points
Regularity: 6 points
Total= 56.5 points
Comments: New website with a professional format. Gathers outside News articles and some opinion articles with opposition viewpoints. www.ethiopolitics.com

Gadaa

Influential: 6 points
Independence: 7 points
Design: 5.5 points
Originality: 4.5 points
News Content diversity: 5.5 points
Language diversity: 5.5 points
Multimedia variety: 6 points
Creativity: 3 points
Popularity: 7 points
Regularity: 6 points
Total= 56 points
Comments: Links to outside news articles from diverse sources. It also contains some original articles and short commentaries from an ethno-political point of view. www.gadaa.com

Aigaforum

Influential: 7.5 points
Independence: 5 points
Design: 5 points
Originality: 5 points
News Content diversity: 5.5 points
Language diversity: 4.5 points
Multimedia variety: 4.5 points
Creativity: 3 points
Popularity: 7.5 points
Regularity: 7 points
Total= 54.5 points
Comments: Famous for providing inside information and comments from the perspective of the Ethiopian government. www.aigaforum.com

Cyberethiopia

Influential: 4.5 points
Independence: 6 points
Design: 5.5 points
Originality: 1 point
News Content diversity: 6.5 points
Language diversity: 6.5 points
Multimedia variety: 4 points
Creativity: 4 points
Popularity: 6 points
Regularity: 9.5 points
Total= 53.5 points
Comments: Up to the minute news feed, indexed with keywords from various selected media sources. www.cyberethiopia.com

Here are the 10 techniques of measurement

Independence: This measurement ranks how independent and balanced the media reports are. It checks if the media is independent politically, ideologically etc. If the media/website has original articles, this measures how independent the articles are. But if the media does not have original articles, this measurement assesses how independent the external articles chosen by the media are or evaluates general neutrality.

Design: this measures the general attractiveness, elegance and sophistication of the media. It also measures ease of use that helps readers navigate faster and assesses professional appearance.

News Content diversity: This measurement shows how diverse the news content is or the ethnic and regional topics covered in the website and/or newspaper.

Language diversity: this measurement assesses the amount and number of languages the media uses. It also assesses how extensively one than one languages are used.

Originality: this measures how much of the media’s content is its own original work and also the quality of the original publications.

Multimedia variety: this measurement checks how many different forms of media are used (example, use of website, newspaper, radio etc) and the technique and number of ways it operates (example, use of videos, text, photos etc)

Influential: this measurement assesses how powerful the media is among Ethiopian society in particular, East Africa and the world in general.

Creativity: this measurement checks how artistic the media is (for example, unique ways to attract readers; imagery; ingenuity; new techniques that allow readers to comment or get involve; use of creative cartoons, etc)

Popularity: this measurement checks how many people know the website inside and outside Ethiopia. The traffic ranking of the website inside and outside Ethiopia (alexa.com ) If the media has newspaper version, this measurement also checks how many people buy the newspaper.

Regularity: this measurement checks how frequent the media publishes and how timely the media works.

These 25 websites and newspapers are the BEST OF THE BEST Ethiopian media outlets in the world. But all of them have space to improve their qualities. One way to compel the media to improve is by creating competition. Unfortunately, the undeniable truth is Ethiopian people have one of the most anti-media governments in the world, which makes it dangerous to even work inside the media industry. Thus, while we condemn the government, let us congratulate all of the courageous Ethiopians who work in the media, especially these top 25.

The top 25 listing will be published again next year in September so make sure you visit NAZRET.COM, the #1 visited Ethiopian website.

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Ed's Note
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of nazret.com. The views are solely that of the author. nazret.com was not involved in the ranking of the websites. nazret.com ranking as the #1 most popular website is based on alexa.com and see for yourself at alexa.com.
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