U.S. citizen interest in politics is up in this election year, but some mainstream media outlets aren't finding their own audience metrics rising as a result.
Cable news ratings have risen sharply, with record viewership for debates and growing numbers for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Sites including MSNBC.com and CNN.com have set new records for views of online videos. A trade association for newspapers has placed advertisements telling campaign managers that “newspapers deliver voters.”
But many media companies are struggling to translate campaign coverage into repeat readers and viewers — or revenue. The presidential primary debates had little lasting impact on TV ratings, and some magazines say that issues with candidates on the cover show only a modest bump in newsstand sales.
More noticeably, the broadcast networks’ evening newscasts — the traditional standard-bearers of television news — have been unable to stop their long-term ratings declines, even during the hotly contested primaries. The newscasts on NBC, ABC and CBS had an average combined audience of 23.7 million viewers from January to June, down 2 percent from the same time period in 2007.
That decline came despite expensive efforts to remain competitive. The networks have produced special series about the candidates and kept reporters on the campaign trail. Most recently, Brian Williams of “NBC Nightly News,” Charles Gibson of “World News” on ABC and Katie Couric of the “CBS Evening News” all traveled with Senator Barack Obama as he toured the Middle East and Europe, yet household ratings for each of those three newscasts were flat compared with the previous week.
A big winner, however, is The Politico, which clocks in at 2.5 million uniques per month. Only 13 other U.S. newspapers surpassed that. However, most of its revenue comes from its newspaper, not its website.
While newspaper website stats are up, it's hard to determine how much of that stems from heightened political interest.
All websites are serving up much more online video now than they did in 2004.
The story also said local TV has benefited wherever there was a Democratic primary, especially in states that never had much action before, like Montana and South Dakota.