148 Citizens
end of 2015, the news site was publishing 1,200 items a day, including
some 500 news stories, more than twice the number of its nearest competitor, The New York Times, and allowing it to create as wide a funnel
as possible to attract readers.
99
As with Amazon Web Services, Bezos
also saw an opportunity to licence this new system to other publishers
(the Canadian The Globe and Mail media group was one of the first
to do so in 2016).
100
Within two years, Bezos had laid the foundations
to transform his news title into a high-end, mass-market newspaper,
employing many of the successful techniques that had driven Amazon
forward. A few people paid polite interest, but his ownership attracted
relatively little attention overall. That would begin to change when
Donald Trump, famously descending an elevator in Trump Tower on
June 16, 2015, announced his intention to enter the race to become the
President of the United States and won a highly contentious election in
November 2016.
When Billionaires Collide
The ways in which Donald Trump has dominated the news cycle since
the announcement of his bid for the presidency is by no means restricted
to The Washington Post, and indeed it is also worth considering briefly
the consequences of Trump securing the Republican nomination and
eventually being elected the President for two other news organisations: The New York Times and CNN. While it was the CEO of CBS,
Les Moonves, who said of Trump’s nomination, “It may not be good
news for America, but it’s damn good for CBS”,
101
that nomination
raised considerable revenues for television networks in particular.
Journalists such as the late Rupert Cornwell reported that coverage
of Trump had provided him with some $1.9 billion of free publicity
compared to $1.2 billion for the other 16 candidates combined,
102
but
spending on political ads increased to $9.8 billion and it was political
channels such as Fox News and CNN that benefited greatly; indeed,
according to media trackers Borrell Associates, ad campaign spending decreased for broadcast television, while it shot up on cable channels.
103
For Cornwell, such spending militated against democracy, but
just as CBS profited from the carnival show surrounding Trump so did
CNN, even as he sought to criticise it. In his notorious attacks against
the media as an “enemy of the people”, the President particularly singled out CNN, The New York Times, and NBC News,
104
but in 2016,
Cable Network News had its most profitable year ever, earning $1
billion in profit as its parent company, Time Warner, saw share prices
rise by 21 per cent.
105
Similarly, the more Trump attacked The New
York Times as “fake news” and “failing”, so an ever-greater number
of readers took out subscriptions, driving its revenue from that source
to over $1.7 billion in 2017.
106
In both cases, legacy media companies
end of 2015, the news site was publishing 1,200 items a day, including
some 500 news stories, more than twice the number of its nearest competitor, The New York Times, and allowing it to create as wide a funnel
as possible to attract readers.
99
As with Amazon Web Services, Bezos
also saw an opportunity to licence this new system to other publishers
(the Canadian The Globe and Mail media group was one of the first
to do so in 2016).
100
Within two years, Bezos had laid the foundations
to transform his news title into a high-end, mass-market newspaper,
employing many of the successful techniques that had driven Amazon
forward. A few people paid polite interest, but his ownership attracted
relatively little attention overall. That would begin to change when
Donald Trump, famously descending an elevator in Trump Tower on
June 16, 2015, announced his intention to enter the race to become the
President of the United States and won a highly contentious election in
November 2016.
When Billionaires Collide
The ways in which Donald Trump has dominated the news cycle since
the announcement of his bid for the presidency is by no means restricted
to The Washington Post, and indeed it is also worth considering briefly
the consequences of Trump securing the Republican nomination and
eventually being elected the President for two other news organisations: The New York Times and CNN. While it was the CEO of CBS,
Les Moonves, who said of Trump’s nomination, “It may not be good
news for America, but it’s damn good for CBS”,
101
that nomination
raised considerable revenues for television networks in particular.
Journalists such as the late Rupert Cornwell reported that coverage
of Trump had provided him with some $1.9 billion of free publicity
compared to $1.2 billion for the other 16 candidates combined,
102
but
spending on political ads increased to $9.8 billion and it was political
channels such as Fox News and CNN that benefited greatly; indeed,
according to media trackers Borrell Associates, ad campaign spending decreased for broadcast television, while it shot up on cable channels.
103
For Cornwell, such spending militated against democracy, but
just as CBS profited from the carnival show surrounding Trump so did
CNN, even as he sought to criticise it. In his notorious attacks against
the media as an “enemy of the people”, the President particularly singled out CNN, The New York Times, and NBC News,
104
but in 2016,
Cable Network News had its most profitable year ever, earning $1
billion in profit as its parent company, Time Warner, saw share prices
rise by 21 per cent.
105
Similarly, the more Trump attacked The New
York Times as “fake news” and “failing”, so an ever-greater number
of readers took out subscriptions, driving its revenue from that source
to over $1.7 billion in 2017.
106
In both cases, legacy media companies