President Trump is solid gold for the news media despite his attacks that reporters are the “enemy of the people.”
The media “Trump Bump” that began when he emerged in 2016 as the leading Republican presidential candidate has continued, driving news junkies to buy more news.
According to a new report from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 16% in the U.S. are paying for online access to news. That has held steady since Trump emerged on the presidential stage.
A report on the study from Nieman Lab said, “following the Trump bump of 2017, the percentage of U.S. respondents who pay for news in the U.S. is stable at 16%.”
And despite the president’s assault on big liberal media outlets, they are benefiting.
The New York Times, for example, added 223,000 digital subscribers in the first quarter of 2019. It has a goal of 10 million total subscriptions by 2025.
That comes despite a growing distrust in the media, in the U.S. and worldwide, said the report. Just 32% trust the media, putting the U.S. media at 32 of 38 countries tested.
