The consumer media face a much greater crisis than Trump

• The mass media are faced with a crisis of confidence at the same time as it is targeted by Trump and his allies.
• The NY Times, the WSJ and others say to Bi how they work to connect with the public through one polarized.
• The inversion of the tendency of the decline in confidence will take time and each approach has limits.

President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly targeted the consumer press – but their legal and rhetorical attacks are only part of a larger crisis in the media.

The recent data of Gallup show that confidence in the mass media is at its lowest level in five decades, 36% of Americans saying that they do not trust him at all.

The erosion of confidence is particularly worrying for the mainstream media who often try to take the power to account while using increasingly polarized audiences in the United States.

The main news leaders say to Business Insider that they take concrete measures to connect with the public by increasing transparency and deepening the commitment.

The editor -in -chief of the New York Times, Joe Kahn, told Bi that his point of sale had decided to provide more information on journalists and their expertise, and encouraged his journalists to address readers directly on platforms like Instagram and Tiktok.

Kahn said he saw an “growth opportunity” in establishing relations between journalists and the public, especially by video.

More specifically, he said that he was looking for “this more direct relationship which was more a characteristic of Instagram and Tiktok, where people want to have a direct relationship with the creators”.

He added that the illumination of the human report process could improve its journalistic value.

“It is not a narrative model limited to influencers and marketing specialists,” he said.

Kahn said Times is also “actively” by considering evolving its comments section, which allows people to weigh on stories or ask questions.

The Wall Street Journal also tries to feed its relationship with readers, taking a page of its technological columnist Joanna Stern, who has a newsletter and a series of popular videos. The point of sale began to put more journalists in front of the camera, making questions of questions / answers and explanations.

“We have a number of writers and individual journalists who have a direct relationship with our readers, and I like it and I want to encourage more,” said Charles Forelle, deputy editor of the newspaper.

Press organizations examine their editorial mix

Points of sale seek to connect with a large audience also focus on hitting the right mixture of stories.

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Under Emma Tucker, who became editor -in -chief in 2023, the newspaper increased its use of data to better understand the stories that people read.

“The greatest thing we pay attention is commitment, which is an indirect indicator: have you read the thing and spent time with it?” Said Forelle.

Other articles try to expand their audience thanks to modifications made to the editorial product. The owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, called for a more balanced approach to cover Trump and hired conservatives to reshape the opinion section. Jeff Bezos also said he wanted to hire more conservative Washington Post and Farm Washington Editors. on free markets and personal freedoms. However, these two movements encountered considerable reactions in these editorial rooms and with certain paid readers.

Then, there is local information, the only area of ​​the media ecosystem which is a bright point on the trust counter.

In 2023, Comcast put its more than 200 affiliates and more than 40 local NBCU stations under the direction of NBC News, CESAR CONDE. The result was the network and the affiliates that combine with big news such as Los Angeles fires and recent aircraft accidents, local television journalists that take place in national programs like “Meet the Press” and “Dateline”, and local and national offices were repressed each other.

In an example, NBC News has enlisted dozens of its local stations to report on the national availability of Narcan, an overdose treatment of narcotics.

It is not difficult to see one day when NBC News could give in the coverage of a large local history entirely at a local station.

“Local television is there, it is alive,” said Rebecca Blumenstein, president of the editorial at NBC News, who was accused of having carried out integration. “People depend on it for security. People have relationships with their sports executives, their meteorological person. Local is more reliable than any other form of media. We are aware and respectful. And it is something on which we have been actively built.”

In addition, certain press organizations invest in marketing campaigns that highlight their value and how they do the work of journalism. The BBC recently released a short film showing how it fights against disinformation. Hearst Newspapers has just announced a new campaign, starting with San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle, which promotes the role of its local newspapers in people’s information.

Mass media are assaucts

The mainstream points of sale are trying to make breakthroughs in confidence at a time when they are threatened with a hostile white house and a brutal commercial climate.

Trump and his administration release complaints against television networks, dispute news funding and block certain points of sale of the coverage of events. Investigations show that some of the points of sale in the reticulation, such as AP and CBS News, are considered by the public as non -partisan.

The end of monoculture and the transition to digital also weakened the commercial models of many media, which makes them more difficult for them to retaliate.

It is a period of particular flow in television information while the cord cut strikes the results of the networks, with the change of leadership, the anchors that were emerging and the mergers who are looming. While some conglomerates from Mull Mergers to survive, the White House could make these agreements more difficult.

On the digital side, advertisers spend most of their budgets with Google and Meta, and some completely avoid the news for fear of political reaction.

Currently, most media have developed several sources of income from subscriptions, events, electronic commerce, and others to compensate for their dependence on advertising and support their news operations.

But people will not pay for news, they do not trust it first.

Moving the needle on confidence is difficult

There is research to safeguard strategies in writing rooms such as Times and the newspaper use.

The problem is that the displacement of the needle on trust is a slow process and each strategy does not also work with all groups of people.

A certain transparency moves only with people who are already inclined to trust you and who can turn around with those who have not, for example, declared Nic Newman, researcher at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Abandon your editorial heritage or change the makeup of your editorial room too radically, and trying to call on new people, you risk alienating your base. (The Washington Post lost 75,000 subscriptions after changing its opinion strategy, in addition to an earlier loss of 300,000 after having killed presidential approval from Kamala Harris, reported NPR.)

“You have to decide who you want to trust yourself,” said Newman.

The bandwidth is another limiting factor. Journalists cannot make as many vertical videos in addition to everything they do. Times publishes 200 articles per day, but only a small fraction of their transforming into a journalist video.

The inherited editorial rooms are also linked to tradition. Times will not change its social media policy which prevents journalists from sharing their personal political opinions, even if some in the editorial hall think that it is time to abandon the tradition of objective appearance.

Some analysts and initiates of the press room believe that traditional outlets should play with their strengths, even if it means limiting their ambitions.

“Right now, institutional journalism is definitely decreased and its confidence is affected,” said Newman. “This can be reversed? This requires a mixture of all these things. All these things are not possible. This requires engaging in community construction, which is something that influencers are really good and the traditional media is not.”

Many news leaders believe that there is still an opportunity to grow and reach new audiences. Pew Research Center data published in October showed, for example, that young Republicans were more likely that their older counterparts to turn to CNN, Times and other mainstream sales points for electoral news.

Kahn said that there were many curious readers that Times had not yet reached. A time representative said that its best states for subscribers’ growth rates in the past five years were all outside the northeast and western coast and that the South opens the way for hearing growth. The Midwest and the South – which largely voted for Trump in 2024 – represent 42% of its readership so far this year, said the representative.

However, Pew has found more than twice as many democrats that the Republicans are counting on the Times for new politicians.

“I’m not pretending that many people who have trouble in Core are among the main demo of New York Times readers,” said Kahn. “The more people see themselves as supporters, the less likely they are to want to engage with a brand of news that is not aligned with their partisan interest. But I think these people attract much more attention than they really represent it.”