What another Trump presidency means for mainstream media

This week, journalists and media commentators have been considering what another Trump presidency will mean for the industry. 

At CNN, Brian Stelter argues that while it’s hyperbole to call the mainstream media “dead”, there is a “severe trust deficit” between traditional media and Trump voters. Now, argues Dick Tofel in his Second Rough Draft newsletter, the press must go to work covering the administration without hysteria while also preparing to defend the Constitution which makes its role possible. 

In his Substack, Matt Pearce, president of the Media Guild of the West, argues that the country’s “information economy is rotten from top to bottom” and that mainstream media’s role is increasingly irrelevant. Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin in the Times write that Trump’s 2024 media strategy focused largely on celebrity influencers rather than cable news, his medium of choice in 2016. 

In The New York Times, Benjamin Mullin writes that the next Trump administration will be unlikely to create the sustained “Trump bump” that news outlets benefited from after 2016 because audiences are “exhausted by the relentless news cycle.” And Trump is likely to allow for more media mergers, potentially leading to a wave of consolidation, writes Todd Spangler in Variety. 

For Axios, Sara Fischer writes that Trump is less likely to use regulatory action against media companies he dislikes and more likely to launch harassment campaigns and frivolous lawsuits that drain resources.  

News In Focus 
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> The other election night winner: Perplexity (TechCrunch) 

AI start-up Perplexity’s real-time election chatbot was generally accurate in answering questions about the election results, although it did struggle at times to differentiate polling data from actual voting results. 

>> New from API: Want to build better politics and policy coverage? Think about people as voters beyond election season. 

After elections, many newsrooms slip back into the usual: politics coverage driven by politicians and press releases. But voters aren’t only voters when they have a ballot in hand. Voters are voters all the time. 

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Culture & Inclusion

>> Another letter to a young journalist (Columbia Journalism Review)

In an open letter, Samuel G. Freedman argues that the next generation of journalists must “redefine our profession” and move away from outdated ideas about objectivity. 

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Relatable, real, raw: TikTok’s power in news for Gen Z (The Fix)

Young people around the world are turning to TikTok for news, which they tend to receive from relatable influencers in bite-size nuggets. News creators on the platform often reference their personal lives in ways that users find engaging. 

>> New from API: Try these tactics to engage middle-funnel audiences (Better News)

Local news organizations are invested in capturing the interest of news consumers who are stuck in the “middle” of the audience funnel, but don’t always know how to move those audiences down the funnel to becoming loyal users, donors or paying subscribers. Here are four ways to rethink your approach to these users.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> How New Mexico newsrooms boosted reader revenues, engaged communities (Medium, New Mexico Local News Fund)

Several of the 17 newsrooms in New Mexico Local News Fund’s Accelerator program — where API’s Stephen Jefferson served as a technology consultant — saw a rise in reader revenue through memberships and recurring donations. Many also made money by partnering with local governments. 

>> Ziff Davis study says AI firms rely on publisher data to train models (Axios) 

New research indicates that large language models rely disproportionately on commercial media products to learn — a finding that may help newsrooms seeking compensation from AI companies. 

>> How stations are enhancing statehouse journalism with CPB funding (Current) 

Public media in seven states are using new grant money to hire more statehouse reporters and partner with other news outlets to enhance statehouse coverage. At KUNR in Reno, the station is using some of the funding to translate stories into Spanish. 

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What else you need to know

📺 TV Ratings: Election night viewing drops sharply (The Hollywood Reporter)

🔥 Spot the ultimate firestarter: conflict entrepreneurs (Good Conflict)

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Weekend reads

+ How Uvalde’s newspaper kept going, despite unimaginable loss (The New York Times) 

+ How Aaron Rupar went from City Pages blogger to professional Trump watcher (Pioneer Press) 

+ What student journalists in 50 states tell us about 2024 elections (Substack, The Nutgraf)

+ The Daily Beast tries to claw its way back to relevance (The New York Times) 

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