There are signs we could be on the precipice of something we haven’t seen in half a decade – a return to normal news cycles.
Data shows the end of former President Trump’s tumultuous time in office has reduced American’s interest in the news, particularly politics.
“Nearly every big news site saw its traffic decline in February, compared to a tumultuous January that included the Capitol insurrection and Biden’s inauguration,” Axios explained.
But the news hole fighting to emerge faces other forces unhelpful to a healthy and diverse news diet. Trump drove news consumption, so media may be tempted to replace it with other alarmist, click-bait coverage like over-hyping the threat of COVID variants or vaccine hesitancy. Sensational coverage gets traction – even as reporters try to strike the right balance one pointed quote in an otherwise contextual piece is what churns a tweet cycle to their outlet’s benefit.
But from our vantage point, there are some encouraging signs of media slowly being more open to covering pitches of important topics that aren’t related to “PPP”—politics, pandemic or protests. It’ll probably take a couple more months to watch trends play out and see if news cycles could normalize, but now is a good time to lay the groundwork by:
- Investing more time in reporter relationships.
- Reconsidering the news opportunity for upcoming announcements and milestones.
- Thinking about a return to news-generating events, even if small at first, as the year goes on if COVID continues to decline and vaccinations increase.
