They Just Don’t Get It: The Nadir of the Mainstream Media
Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash
Paul Krugman has quit the NYT. He was one of their most influential and popular writers. He’s going to Substack. He already has almost 170,000 subscribers.
This will be the death knell of many mainstream news organizations. They don’t get it. They think all they have to do is insert the word “digital” in front of their branding and hire a bunch of new graduates who look trendy but who hold the same values as them, and they will be set for new media. Establish a bunch of copycat TikTok accounts or YouTube accounts and use the lingo of the day, but say the same thing in the same old way and bend the knee to the same old established status quo interests, and they will be set for the future. They don’t get it. Many never will until it’s too late.The Times has money, resources, and reach, but it cannot match even some of the most popular social media influencers. Even it will find that it will become irrelevant unless it seriously studies this issue. That’s not to say the new social media environment, like Substack or YouTube, is perfect. There’s a lot of opinion, a need for more facts, and a lot of misinformation and disinformation that goes along with that territory. But as traditional journalists leave mainstream publications out of frustration or against their will and come to the new media environment, they will add much-needed credibility and journalistic practices to the arena.
People like Jim Acosta, Mehdi Hasan, Don Lemon, and others are already starting their second careers. Jim Acosta just started yesterday on Substack and already has 55,000 subscribers. Mehdi has over half a million subscribers after less than a year, and Don Lemon is slowly catching on — he’s already at over 300,000 followers. I think we will see more of this influx.
