Pope Leo XIV: How US Media Covered the Historic Election of the First American Pontiff
9. May 2025On May 8, 2025, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago was elected as the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Leo XIV. His election followed the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025. The papal conclave began on May 7, with black smoke signaling inconclusive votes at first. The following day, white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, indicating that a new pope had been chosen. Pope Leo XIV’s election is historic, as he is the first American-born pontiff, marking a significant moment for the Catholic Church and its global followers.
Given Pope Leo XIV’s American origins, analyzing US media coverage provides insight into how this unprecedented event was reported domestically. With the help of Trisolute News Dashboard data, this article examines the visibility of news publishers in US mobile News Boxes during the conclave, highlighting which outlets led the coverage and which keywords drove their visibility.
Keywords that shaped the papal conclave
This list contains the keywords that generated rankings in US mobile News Boxes from May 7 to 8 and fit the pope’s election thematically. The keywords are sorted in descending order according to their number of rankings, which are displayed in the brackets. Those ranking values represent the individual rankings in 15-minute intervals for as long as the keyword was active in Google News or Google Trends.
Interesting insights
- In total, we measured 27 keywords across May 7 and 8 that were related to the pope’s election, whose rankings added up to a total of 4,465. The most ranked keyword is ‘conclave’ at 823 rankings, surprisingly surpassing the keyword ‘pope’, which is in second place at 621 rankings.
- In total, the term “conclave” appears in 9 keywords, which add up to 1,948 rankings, while the term “pope” appears in 16 keywords, which add up to 2,259 rankings, making up around half of the total rankings. While the results of the vote entailed large media interest, the conclave itself also seemed to be at the center of attention.
- This is also supported by the fact that 3 keywords contain the term “cardinals”, which add up to a total of 628 rankings, a considerable share of the total rankings.
- Additionally, 5 keywords contain the term “smoke”, two of which specifically focus on “black smoke”, the sign for an unsuccessful vote, which happened twice during the election. Those two keywords amounted to the most rankings out of the “smoke”-terms, once again suggesting that the report was focused on the whole ordeal rather than only the outcome of the conclave.
- The pope’s real first name, Robert, appears in 4 keywords that add up to 408 rankings, while his chosen name as a pope, Leo, only appears in one keyword (‘pope leo xiv’, 264 rankings). This could imply that media attention, especially in the US, was heavily focused on the fact that the new pope is an American citizen.
After examining the relevant keywords for the reporting on the conclave in US mobile News Boxes, let’s now take a closer look at which publishers came out on top:
Top 5 publishers and platforms on the conclave
Top 5 US publishers and platforms on the pope’s election from May 7 to 8
- NY Times
The New York Times was the clear leader in visibility during the coverage of the 2025 papal election, securing 20.59% of the total visibility—twice as much as the second-highest publisher. Visibility remained high throughout the event, with two distinct surges on May 7, when the conclave began and the first black smoke appeared: at 6:00 AM, the outlet reached 27.37% visibility with the keywords ‘conclave pope’ and ‘pope’ each generating 8 rankings. Another massive increase followed on May 8 at 5:00 AM during the second black smoke signal, as visibility spiked from 2.62% at 2:00 AM to 41.62% at 5:00 AM. The top keyword at this time was ‘conclave cardinals’ with 12 rankings. After dipping around midday, visibility surged again at 3:00 PM by 32.27 percentage points—from 5.18% to 37.45%—coinciding with the announcement of Pope Leo XIV. From there, visibility steadily rose until reaching its peak at 10:00 PM with 43.33%, the highest across all publishers. The top keyword then was ‘pope leo xiv’ (8 rankings). In total, the New York Times generated 766 keyword rankings, with ‘pope’ as its most-ranked keyword (140 rankings, accounting for 23% of all rankings for that term). Its most visible article was the live report “Live Updates: White Smoke Signals That a Pope Is Chosen“. - NBC News
NBC News achieved 10.46% of total visibility, placing second in the ranking. While it had the fewest total keyword rankings among the top five publishers (247), its performance was especially strong on May 7, the first day of the conclave. NBC maintained solid visibility throughout the day, peaking at 6:00 AM with 21.29% visibility (‘pope’, 8 rankings) and again during the early hours of May 8 (2:00–3:00 AM) with 21.32%. At 5:00 PM on May 8, when Pope Leo XIV was officially announced, NBC reached 13.13% visibility, driven by the keyword ‘new pope’ (4 rankings). Over the full period, the most-ranked keyword was ‘conclave’, underlining the publisher’s strength in reporting on the conclave process itself. The most visible article was “Black smoke billows as cardinals’ first conclave vote yields no new pope: Highlights“. - CNN
CNN followed closely with 9.77% visibility. Unlike other publishers, its visibility pattern was more erratic, characterized by several spikes. The most notable occurred on May 7 at 4:00 AM (31.14% visibility), with ‘conclave new pope’ and ‘new pope’ both reaching 4 rankings. That same day at 4:00 PM, visibility reached 19.42% with the keyword ‘election’ (4 rankings). On May 8, CNN experienced further peaks at 2:00 AM (18.81%; ‘conclave’, ‘conclave cardinals’, and ‘conclave new pope’ with 4 rankings each), at 11:00 AM (19.82%), and at 4:00 PM (23.82%). The biggest surge came in the evening, when visibility jumped from 21.25% at 9:00 PM to 37.58% at 11:00 PM, matching the New York Times. CNN generated a total of 289 keyword rankings, with ‘conclave’ leading the pack (86 rankings). Its most visible article was “May 7, 2025 – Day 1 Papal Conclave news at the Vatican following Pope Francis’ passing“. - ABC News
ABC News secured 8.12% visibility, ranking fourth. It showed two major peaks during the event: the first occurred on May 7 between 3:00 and 4:00 AM with visibility scores of 29.64% and 28.75%, driven by the keywords ‘conclave’, ‘new pope’, and ‘pope’ (each reaching around 3–4 rankings). The second peak was on May 8 at 3:00 AM with 26.04% visibility, where ‘pope conclave’ generated 5 rankings and ‘conclave cardinals’, ‘conclave new pope’, and ‘conclave’ each reached 4 rankings. ABC’s visibility dropped significantly during the actual announcement of the new pope, indicating a stronger focus on the lead-up to the decision rather than the result itself. Overall, the publisher generated 363 keyword rankings, with ‘conclave’ being the most-ranked keyword (86 rankings). Interestingly, the most visible article was “Pope Leo XIV live updates: Pope Leo makes history as 1st American pontiff“, showing that ABC did pivot to covering the announcement once it occurred. - YouTube
As the only non-publisher in the top five, YouTube secured 4.38% visibility in the News Boxes. Its presence was relatively steady, though interspersed with stretches of no visibility and without any major spikes. In total, YouTube accumulated 326 keyword rankings, with ‘conclave’ leading at 67 rankings. Its most visible content was a live video broadcast titled “LIVE Conclave 2025 | Conclave Special Coverage | Vatican, May 8th, 2025“, demonstrating that live video formats can still carve out space in news-oriented rankings, especially during real-time developments like the papal election.
Also among the top 10 publishers and platforms were: X (3.97% visibility), BBC (3.52% visibility), USA Today (3.47% visibility), Fox News (3.32% visibility), and AP News (2.55% visibility).
Key insights for news publishers
The analysis of U.S. mobile News Box visibility around the 2025 papal election reveals that strong performance was driven by comprehensive, continuous coverage rather than isolated reporting on the result. Publishers who were present throughout the entire process, from the start of the conclave to the final announcement, were able to capitalize on key moments that drew spikes in user interest, particularly during the black smoke signals that indicated unsuccessful votes. Keywords such as ‘conclave’, ‘cardinals’, and ‘black smoke’ performed especially well, showing that the ritualistic and procedural elements of the papal election generated sustained media attention.
Additionally, the historic dimension of the election—producing the first American pope—offered a strong US-specific news hook. Yet visibility was not primarily driven by keywords like ‘pope leo xiv’ or ‘robert prevost’, but rather by coverage that framed the development within the broader narrative of change and global interest. This underscores the importance for news publishers to anticipate not just what happened, but when and how audiences will engage with the symbolic milestones of an unfolding global event. Providing timely, well-contextualized reporting across all phases proved key to winning attention in Google’s News Boxes.
More Trisolute News Dashboard analyses for US publishers:
- Trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs
- 2025 Met Gala
- Coachella Festival 2025
- Amazon’s Big Spring Sale 2025
- NASA’s Astronauts’ Return to Earth
Not yet part of the Trisolute News Dashboard family? Request a FREE DEMO today and find out how your articles rank on Google Discover, Google News, and the SERPs!