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News / Clark County News

From the Newsroom: Will we get a Trump bump?

By Craig Brown, Columbian Editor emeritus
Published: January 18, 2025, 6:10am

It’s well documented that Donald Trump is no friend to the news media, but could his second term boost U.S. journalism?

It very well might, according to a new report, “Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025,” published this month by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

It’s an international report, focused mostly on large news outlets, but I found some interesting things that seem applicable to local journalism, too.

Take Trump, for example. News publishers find that subscriptions rise when the general public senses big changes are afoot. For example, the Los Angeles Times has reported a substantial increase in subscribers since the wildfires broke out, even though coverage of the fires is free on the Times’ website.

Let’s hope we get a Trump bump.

Otherwise, the publishers surveyed were sanguine about this year. Just 41 percent said they are confident about the prospects for journalism in 2025. About 17 percent expressed low confidence.

Here are just some of the challenges facing the news media.

Less referral traffic from social media and search: To be read, stories have to be found. And many news websites set ad rates based on traffic. In recent years, big technology companies have purposefully de-emphasized news sites when displaying suggestions to users. Facebook referrals to news sites are down 67 percent in two years. Referrals from X, formerly known as Twitter, are down 50 percent.

Competition from artificial intelligence: As technology companies have been asked to pay for using other companies’ journalism, they’ve taken to using artificial intelligence that summarizes articles found on news sites. But those companies provide no referrals or royalty payments to the original author.

Social media influencers: Consumers are turning to influencers on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok to get the “news.” Most of these influencers have no journalism training, do little or no original reporting, aren’t transparent about who pays them, and, too often, are just plain wrong.

Continuing decline in advertising: Once the mainstay of newspapers, traditional print advertising has plummeted over the past 20 years. The trend continues as traditional advertisers — Main Street businesses — decline or close under the weight of online shopping and mass retailers.

If there is some good news, perhaps it is this: The news industry is getting better at identifying its customers and tailoring products to meet their needs. For example, at The Columbian we’ve put more emphasis on our morning and afternoon email newsletters. These are our fastest-growing products, partly because they are free. The challenge for us and other publishers will be to get newsletter readers to click into the story, which, if it becomes a habit, will turn them into subscribers. Newsletters have two more advantages: They aren’t dependent on referral traffic and they contain advertising, which helps increase and diversify revenue.

Speaking of revenue, the Reuters Institute study talks about how publishers are continuing to tap into new sources. Subscriptions and memberships are the most important source of print news revenue, followed by advertising. But publishers are also making money from events, donations and licensing fees paid by AI and technology companies. Interestingly, a number of publishers say they are considering new products centered around either games or education. Others are considering foreign language editions. I know some newspapers have added extra comics and puzzles to their ePapers. We could do the same, particularly if a sponsor emerges.

In summary, it looks like we have a lot of work to do in 2025 to attract and retain audiences and revenue. We’re slowly getting better at finding ways to do this.

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