New York Times executive editor: Trump is the best thing to happen to our subscriptions

[highplainsdem]

Source: The Hill

The executive editor of the New York Times said in an interview Sunday that President Trump’s attempts to smear the publication have instead encouraged more people to read it.

“Trump is the best thing to happen to the Times’ subscription strategy,” Dean Baquet said in an interview with CNN’s "Reliable Sources." “Every time he tweets it drives subscriptions wildly.”

-snip-

"There was a long time when the press wondered about its place in society, the last several years as newspaper subscriptions dwindled, as particularly local newspapers worried about their future," he said. "What’s happened in the last couple of months I have to say has been tremendous for news organizations."

"Our mission is clearer than it's ever been — we’re covering a dramatic revolution in government and how the country is governed, and it feels like all of the things that sort of bothered us and made us lose a little bit of confidence in the last few months have sort of gone away."

-snip-

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/media/321242-nyt-executive-editor-trump-is-the-best-thing-to-happen-to-our-subscriptions

[Kablooie]

1. And if they ever decided to give in to Trump their subscriptions would drop.

So it's good business to keep investigating Trump as deeply as possible and terrible business to allow him to influence them.

Sounds good to me.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Before the election, I took advantage of free trial online subscriptions to

the NY Times and the Washington Post. I've decided to keep both. They are so much more informative than our local paper and I like reading the editorials.

[FigTree]

3. And so it is your chance at redemption.

You yielded to the WH pressure under Bush. Let's see what you will do about this one. I will not re-suscribe until you show your backbone.

[Hortensis]

4. I decided despite its sandbagging of Hillary to keep

my NYT subscription, but they played a significant role in pushing the unliked and untrustworthy themes, the fake scandals, the phony primary horse race, the false equalization of her with Donald, the whole bit.

Studies that confirmed and put numbers on this merely confirmed what I saw in their hostile headers every time I pulled up the NYT political section. A bit better balance that was revealed in the stories once clicked, and must even have raised a lot of eyebrows at misleading headers, did not undo the pernicious effect, as the NYT knew full well as they continued down the road to electing Donald.

Hopefully with higher revenues the NYT will discover it can afford to risk offending more over-partisan readers with the truth.

We also have the WaPo, and it was more honest in its Hillary coverage, but comparing it to the NYT makes it look a lot better than comparing it to unbiased coverage does, hard as that was to find in this era of seriously corrupt political journalism.

[deurbano]

6. As you say, the NYT enabled all of this mess, and the Washington Post wasn't far behind.

That they would validate Clinton Cash by giving it such "respectable" mainstream forums was reckless and reprehensible. (And unforgivable.) Not to mention all the anti-Clinton "where there's smoke, there MUST be fire-- even though we never find the fire" crap since they got the Whitewater ball rolling. And the front page coverage (with headlines that always seem to cast doubt on Clinton's innocence) of any hiccup from Comey...

[Hortensis]

11. Yes. The very lucrative anti-Clinton industry created by

dark-money funders and the large number of peripheral businesses that became dependent in some way on it is one of the most bizarre and corrupting aspects of this era. The more so because all of the hates and resentments arising from frightening change have been encouraged to ultimately focus on one woman.

Thus, in the Information Age, we've come to a point where telling the simple truth can be too damaging to the bottom line for media that market to mass audiences.

In all of human history we can't have seen anything like it.

[Invidious15]

13. Eric Boehlert has been calling bullshit on the NYT..

...from the get-go. They're also keen to send reporters to places like, to put it crudely, Bum Fuck, MI. What a scoop, eh? In a small town in an 85% Republican county they manage to find people who love the Mango Floater. Of course, they put this horseshit on the front page to provide that all-important "balance".

[calimary]

5. I bought a digital subscription to the NYTimes and to the Washington Post.

In honor of trump/pence.

[zentrum]

7. Yes, all of us wondered about your

...place in history all during the Bush years, when you took dictation and even now as you showcase David Brooks who has never been correct about anything.

You made yourselves irrelevant and withdrew from many of your foreign offices.

It's a sad though welcome fact that a madman who's destroying the country is the only thing to bring you to your historic senses as the record of fact.

[elmac]

8. and a related problem

why the networks pushed tRumps message so hard during the election, it was good for profits. Having a clown to report on day after day fits right into their business plan.

[barbtries]

9. i subscribed to the NYTimes,

LATimes, and Washington Post right after the election. i give to many others like Slate, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, and DU. and have been a member of TYT and David Pakman for quite awhile, years in the case of TYT, over a year for the latter.

i get a lot of news from FB, from the SPLC, NAACP, Gun Sense organizations, etc, all of which i also send money to.

it's as if i think by doing this i will save the first amendment all alone. Now I see I am not alone, there's a lot of us, and that's very encouraging.

[yuiyoshida]

10. Trump is making huge advertisement dollars for the media and they love it, oh...

they might bitch and complain, but those dollars are rolling in and they were never so happy. Trump could stand on his head and get news, and those dollars just roll in by the barrel full. They have Never been so happy, and if he and the Republicans destroy the government, well, that will be news too and more advertising dollars... its all about the green!

[Dopers_Greed]

12. Glad to see their subscriptions are doing well

A lot of people are going to suffer under Trump. And they enabled him by promoting the RW Clinton conspiracy theories.

[elias7]

14. We subscribed, too

[Amaryllis]

15. Here's an interview by CNN with the editor where he talks about subscriptions but also why they need

to use anonymous sources for news about Trump, and other topics; well worth listening to:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028714888
CNN interviews NYT editor: why anonomous sources are necessary in news about Trump