Twitter is now bigger than the New York Times according to Compete.com.  Compete says that this month Twitter passed the August numbers of the NYTimes.com as measured by numbers of unique visitors.

From David Weir blog post:

Yes, Twitter grew by 76.8 percent in March, attracting 14,031,985 people, to break into the Top 100 sites, as calculated by the metrics service. Debuting at #72 on the list, the Twittersphere is expanding so rapidly now that it is a sure bet to rise much higher by the end of April, and every month hereafter for quite a while.

In comparison, the old grey lady maintains her position by most measurements as the leading newspaper website with 16,674,238 visitors, holding down spot #58 on the Top 100 List. The Times showed a 3.7 growth rate for the month, and a reasonable 22.1 percent annual growth rate, though that pales next to Twitter’s current AGR of 1,202.2 percent.

The Times is getting plenty of advice from all comers these days, so I’ll refrain from drawing any of the  lessons it might learn from Twitter, but I will mention in passing that the CEO of Reuters spoke out last night, raising the question of why does the Times still need 6-700 journalists? Tom Glocer, chief executive of Thomson Reuters, is quoted by Gillian Reagan of the New York Observer, as arguing that newspapers like The Times should trim costs and focus their coverage. “That view that ‘I am The New York Times and I do everything’—I think that’s not the best way to run a newspaper,” he said.

David Weir is a BNET media analyst/blogger, and a veteran journalist (and author of several books) who has worked at Rolling Stone, California, Mother Jones, Business 2.0, SunDance, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, MyWire, 7×7, Predictify, KQED, Wired Digital, Salon, Excite@Home, Stanford, U-C, Berkeley, SFSU; and is co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation. He also sits on the boards of various NPOs.