The nonprofit news
organization ProPublica typically receives about 10
donations a day. On Monday, its website was deluged with about three every
minute.
ProPublica is one of several outlets, including the New York
Times and Wall Street Journal, witnessing a swell in donations or
subscriptions since Donald Trump’s victory in the Nov. 8 election.
ProPublica, the Times and the Washington Post got a boost Sunday from HBO comic John Oliver, who lamented “fake facts” that
circulated on social media during the campaign and urged viewers to “support
actual journalism.”
“A lot of people after the election feel compelled to respond in
one civic way or another, and journalism is an important part of that,” said
Richard Tofel, ProPublica’s president.
The support is a hopeful sign for an industry looking to answer
how so many journalists missed the Trump surge. Hurt by the loss of readers and
advertisers over many years, newspaper publishers have had to cut their staffs
and pare their coverage. The Wall Street Journal cut at least 50 positions this
month.
At the Times, new print and digital subscriptions have risen at
four times their normal rate since election day, according to spokeswoman
Eileen Murphy. The company saw record traffic on its website Nov. 8 through
Nov. 10, the newspaper said in a statement Monday.
In a Nov. 13 letter to readers, New York Times Co. Chairman and
Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Executive Editor Dean Baquet vowed to
“rededicate” the newspaper “to the fundamental mission of Times journalism.”
While the two said they believed their coverage of both
presidential candidates was fair, they also asked, “Did Donald Trump’s sheer
unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support
among American voters?” Baquet also said separately in a Times story that
journalists have “to do a much better job of being on the road, out in the
country, talking to different kinds of people than the people we talk to.”
From Bloomberg, read it HERE
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