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Donald Trump’s first term in office was a bracing experience for reporters, whom the president spent much of his time castigating. But it was a happier period for their bosses, who enjoyed a “Trump bump” in ratings and subscriptions. The second Trump term promises to be different. Old-school television viewership has collapsed as audiences flip to entertainment-focused streaming. At the same time the social-media landscape, which Mr Trump once dominated with his Twitter megaphone, has fragmented. As political news is squeezed out of both old and new media, it is becoming harder to control America’s conversation.
One thing that has not changed is Mr Trump’s gleeful bullying of the mainstream media. At a rally in November he said that any would-be assassin would have to shoot at him through the press pen, “and I don’t mind that so much”. He has mounted flimsy lawsuits against the New York Times and CBS, calling for the latter’s broadcast licence to be revoked. His continued focus on “failing” legacy media reflects his own viewing habits, which appear to include as much cable TV as ever.
But the news consumption of the rest of the country has changed radically. The “Trump bump” of 2016 has become a slump: television viewership on election night this year was 25% down on 2020 and 40% down on 2016, according to Nielsen, which measures such things. Media companies can see the writing on the wall: on November 20th Comcast announced that it would spin off its cable-TV business.
Some viewers are avoiding the news, out of weariness or mistrust. But the news is also avoiding them. Streaming platforms, which now account for a bigger share of TV viewing than either broadcast or cable, don’t do current affairs. Netflix, in...