Top NY Times editor Joe Kahn says the paper is adding readers in red states and still has room to grow
Celeste Sloman
- Top New York Times editor Joe Kahn says the paper has grown in red states despite partisan division.
- Still, Pew Research shows more than twice as many Democrats (53%) as Republicans rely on the Times.
- Kahn laid out how the Times is trying to build reader trust and why it still has room to grow.
Top New York Times editor Joe Kahn says his paper has seen big growth outside the coasts and has room for more, despite the stark political divide in the US.
Americans vary widely in the news sources they rely on, depending on their politics. A 2024 Pew Research Center report found that even mass news outlets like ABC, CNN, and NPR that consider themselves nonpartisan are much more likely to be favored by Democrats over Republicans for political news. More than twice as many Democrats (53%) as Republicans rely on the Times, per Pew. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's election showed the declining influence of the mainstream media.
That would seem to present a challenge for those legacy outlets to grow their audiences when such a large swath of the country doesn't trust them. According to Gallup, Republicans are about twice as likely (59%) as the general public to distrust the mass media.
Despite that, Kahn said while the Times doesn't collect information on subscribers' political affiliations, it's had significant growth in red states.
"We tend not to target ideologically, but that said, our evidence shows we have significant penetration and readership in counties and parts of America that strongly favored Trump for president," Kahn said. "There are many things we do in our reporting that are of use to people who live all around the country."
A Times rep shared separately that its top 10 states for subscriber growth rates in the past five years were all outside the Northeast and West Coast and that the South was leading the way in audience growth. The Midwest and South — which largely voted for Trump in 2024 — make up 42% of its readership so far this year, the rep said.
Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
The Times has an advantage because it has so many entry points beyond political news. Its remit spans news and lifestyle topics as well as its popular games and cooking apps. The Times has been a rare success story among major news outlets, with subscriber growth making up for essentially flat ad revenue.
"I'm not making a claim that lots of people who are hard-core MAGA right are among the main demo of New York Times readers," Kahn said. "The more people consider themselves partisans, the less likely they are to want to engage with a news brand that isn't aligned with their partisan interest. But I do think those people get a lot more attention than they actually represent."
How the Times is trying to counter declining trust
Kahn also laid out how the Times is trying to grow trust.
Here are a few ways:
- Providing more information about reporters and their expertise
- Encouraging its journalists to address readers directly via short-form video, which also can serve to reach people who aren't reading long-form text
- Looking at expanding its commenting features
While the Times is embracing new ways of doing things to open up its process to readers, Kahn remains firm that reporters shouldn't share their personal political opinions online, though some in the newsroom think it's time to abandon the tradition of appearing objective.
"I'm not interested in what fellow members of my newsroom think personally of the politics of the day," he said. "That's not part of their job and the value we're providing to people journalistically. Their job is to report on and understand and provide insight into the news of the day."
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ORykxqY
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment