Trump has media crying ... all the way to the bank
Trump has media crying ... all the way to the bank
Donald Trump’s tweet about the media’s being “the enemy of the American people” was a classic distraction — in this case, from questions swirling around his team’s troubling ties with our Russian adversaries. While the FBI, CIA and Senate Intelligence Committee investigate, a few thoughts on how news sources under Trumpian attack should respond.
When Trump tweets that CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and The New York Times stink, what should the scolded media do? For starters, they should watch their audience, ad revenues and subscriber lists grow. The last thing they should do is droop in shame and promise to be nicer next time. No, this is working for them.
Trump may bash the traditional media to please his base of die-hards, but the anti-Trump base is a lot bigger, and it’s growing. It’s also affluent. And one way to resist is to buy what Trump condemns.
When the White House boycotted CNN, the news channel’s ratings actually rose. CNN’s audience among viewers ages 25 to 54 is up more than 50 percent this year.
MSNBC’s viewership among this prized (by advertisers) demographic has surged more than 30 percent. In January, “The Rachel Maddow Show” posted a 71 percent jump in total viewers.
Trump tweets about the “failing” and “dwindling” New York Times, but in the last three months of 2016, the company added 276,000 paying subscribers to its digital-only news product. Such startling gains couldn’t have happened without Trump.
The Washington Post’s website ended last year with record traffic and digital ad revenue. New subscriptions were up 75 percent over the year before, and the company announced plans to hire 60 more reporters.
Two things are happening. One, Trump has made the news gruesomely fascinating. And two, the traditional media outlets are providing refuge for those who find Trump appalling.
And here’s an encouraging trend for venerable newspapers: Younger Americans were likelier to patronize the Times, the Post and The Wall Street Journal for election news than those 50 or older. The Pew Research Center found that younger consumers increasingly want to read the news (overwhelmingly online), as opposed to watching and hearing it.
Trump has media crying ... all the way to the bank | Op-ed Columns | theet.com