Americans can’t seem to stop reading about former President Donald Trump.
The 77-year-old is riding a wave of earned media to the top of the 2024 Republican primary ballot.
According to data from tracking firm Memo, articles about the 45th president received 30% readership between Sept. 10 and Oct. 7. Stories about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received 14.3% reader share, while pieces about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got 5% of readers.
President Biden is the only 2024 candidate to outperform Trump, gaining 34.7% readership share over the same time frame.
Trump’s most widely read stories involve the ongoing court case against him, as well as the legal question of whether he should be barred from running for president again.
Articles about DeSantis saw a big spike in readership around the time Hurricane Idalia hit the Sunshine State in late August, and articles about all GOP candidates saw spikes in attention during the first two Republican debates on Aug. 23 and Sept. 27.
Trump’s online readership tends to increase with his legal proceedings and court cases.Getty Images
The Memo Survey tracks the number of unique visitors to a sample of articles from 80 large national and regional outlets for seven days after publication. Articles must mention the candidate’s name in the title or at least twice in the content text.
“Most articles receive traffic within the first three or four days of publication, which is why Memo tracks readership for seven days after publication,” VP of Insights Allison Horton told The Post.
“In some cases, readers measure more intentional engagement than TV – readers must click on an article to view and read it, while TV consumption can be more passive.”
President Biden is the only candidate to surpass Trump among readers.REUTERS
The former president has enjoyed extensive media coverage since his successful bid for the White House in 2016, and his campaign knows he can get the spotlight as needed.
“No one dominates news coverage like Donald Trump. I feel bad for the other candidates. Running against Trump is a futile effort,” a Republican working on Trump’s 2024 campaign told The Post.
The media’s focus — particularly Trump’s recent campaign strategy to paint him as a “martyr” in the face of his four upcoming criminal trials — is crucial to coming out on top in the polls, GOP strategist John Thomas said.
The amount of media earned is largely in line with national polling averages. Getty Images
“One of Trump’s key strengths since 2016 has been his innate ability to stay relevant and dominate earned media and this cycle appears to be no different,” Thomas said. “Even if Trump doesn’t have the incumbent power to do that like he did in 2020, he’s still effectively doing that and basically doing that as a martyr.”
“Any time he has another lawsuit, another action, it ends up being a great thing for him in the media,” said Republican strategist Dave Wilson. “And that’s why I think you see Donald Trump so high in the numbers, because he stays and keeps himself part of the story.”
“This is tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advertising equivalent,” Wilson said of Memo’s findings. “That is, if you really have to pay for media, this is the cost you need.”
Earned media rankings largely match the national polling order in the Republican primary, according to Real Clear Politics. Trump is the clear leader in the polls, with 59.1% support compared to DeSantis’ 12.8%.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
