Several major U.S. media websites were blocked to Europeans on Friday as the European Union's new data protection law kicked in.

The websites of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and other publications owned by Tronc were down, showing the message: "Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market."

Tronc echoed that message in an emailed statement to CNBC. It said it would look to find "technical compliance solutions" to reopen its site to readers in Europe.

News sites owned by Lee Enterprises, which include the Arizona Daily Sun and Star papers and the Times of Northwest Indiana, were also unavailable in Europe. A message on Lee Enterprises' website and the websites of its subsidiaries read: "We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at the time."