US Election and news media
So this is it. The election is almost over. One of the candidates will emerge victorious on Tuesday until, that is, the whole thing will start all over again in two years.
As some people start to prepare for the eventuality of Trumpocalypse, this is good time to reflect on who stands to benefit in the event of Republican victory.
Trump’s victory won’t be too bad for media, especially for news media.
News media and the Republican nominee had a bizarre love and hate relationship throughout this election cycle. According to analysis by New York Times, Donald Trump’s camp gained $2 billion worth of media coverage.
In fact, his campaign has been a gift that keeps giving for news media orgs. Every controversial comment he makes is another viral hit. A quick glance at the most recent videos published by NowThis and AJ+ related to “Hillary” and “Trump” demonstrates this point.
Average video views “Hillary” = 802,065
Average video views “Trump” = 3,706,668
*Based on 40 videos published by AJ+ or NowThis between 21st of Oct and 7th Nov
*The sample consists of 20 AJ+ and 20 NowThis videos
*Video view counts as of writing
*All public information available on Facebook
On average, a video with “Trump” in title description or in the top comment had over 3 million views in the final days of election season. Granted, as the below chart shows, this is skewed by a small number of viral hits.
If we remove top two “Trump” videos from the mix, the chart will look like this.
Comparison between median views indicates “Trump” videos still outperform “Hillary” videos by about 120K views.
Median video views “Hillary” = 558,922
Median video views “Trump” = 680,747
The US election has been often compared with Brexit referendum in the UK from earlier this year. Following the referendum result, both Guardian and Financial Times saw peak performance in audience acquisition. As I argued in my previous post, uncertainty and instability are good for news business. This could be another ‘bad news sells’ moment for news media.
