Opinion: How will the media survive post-election?

Posted by Lauren Drablier on November 5, 2008 at 12:13 PM

The United States presidential election is over and many are asking what is going to happen to the political press that has been focusing on this monumental race for the last two years.

The Big Money points out that traditional news sites have seen record numbers of pages views, start up sites such as the Huffington Post and Politico have become front-runners in online news; candidates gave shows such as The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live record numbers of viewers and political figures on the cover of magazines have boosted their sales.

The Big Money predicts the "post-election landscape to look very different," especially for television and advertisement revenue. In one week the candidates spent $28 million in TV advertisements - what is going to happen now? Where will TV, magazines and newspapers get the revenue that they were receiving from the candidates now that the economy has taken a turn for the worse?

According to TBM, even though the media goes through cycles of profit, "this year, the media industry isn't easing back into its old, comfortable lifestyle. This year it's falling back into a pit of despair."

However, some online sources such as Politico and the Huffington Post, have decided to branch out. Politico has decided to expand their team while the Huffington Post is increasing content coverage.

TBM believes that "if the new, pro-growth Internet models work, then for some members of the media, the election will have had a lasting economic impact." But it still remains to be seen if the model does work and if so, what effect it will have on traditional media sources - both online and print.

Source: The Big Money