As the nation’s eyes turn to Minneapolis, they’re also turning to Minnesota Public Radio

Minnesota has been the center of the news universe the past few weeks, with ICE’s controversial deportation raids and the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. But the attention of online audiences was already focused there.

Minnesota Public Radio finished the fourth quarter of 2025 as the No. 1 local public radio outlet in the United States in terms of web traffic, according to our regular rankings derived from Similarweb data. It also finished as No. 1 in traffic for the months of November and December, though Oregon Public Broadcasting snuck past it to take the top spot in October.

Operation Metro Surge was announced by the Trump administration on December 4, and the nation’s attention soon followed — even though the killings of Good and Pretti didn’t occur until January 7 and 24, respectively. In December, MPR’s traffic was 41% higher than that of the country’s No. 2 public radio website, WNYC’s Gothamist.

Here are the rankings for Q4 2025 overall; below you’ll find the individual rankings for October, November, and December.

A few items to highlight:

— It’s easy to see the localized impact of Trump administration ICE raids in these numbers. Chicago’s WBEZ saw a 83% spike in traffic in October during Operation Midway Blitz. Charlotte’s WFAE saw a similar 73% increase in November amid that month’s Operation Charlotte’s Web. (Not unlike how LA Public Press saw a 2,324% spike in traffic last June covering ICE operations in Los Angeles.)

— Stations that saw major traffic spikes in October include KCUR in Kansas City (up 75% over September), Richmond, Va.’s VPM (up 60%), WVTF at Virginia Tech (up 56%), and WABE in Atlanta (up 44%). Among those who saw big jumps in November are Seattle’s KUOQ (up 87%), WYPR in Baltimore (up 44%), and — once again — Richmond’s VPM. (The former Virginia Public Media went from 201,000 to 323,000 to 514,000 between September and November.)

— December gainers were topped by the aforementioned Minnesota Public Radio. But there were also big percentage gains at KGOU in Oklahoma (up 66% over November), Milwaukee’s WUWM (up 66%), Hawaii Public Radio (up 54%), and, again, Kansas City’s KCUR (up 56%)