The pro-Trump media landscape is experiencing a significant decline compared to the last election cycle, according to a recent report. In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, numerous far-right websites emerged and profited from content that supported then-candidate Donald Trump. These sites continued to generate millions of dollars during Trump’s time in office. However, since the 2020 election, the flow of traffic and revenue for these right-wing media outlets has dramatically decreased.
An analysis by the Atlantic reveals that the most prominent pro-Trump websites have seen a significant drop in their once thriving traffic. The report, based on data from media analysis website The Righting, which focuses on conservative publishers, indicates that the ten most popular right-wing websites have seen their traffic decrease by an average of approximately 40%.
“The flow of traffic to Donald Trump’s most loyal digital-media boosters isn’t just slowing, as in the rest of the industry; it’s utterly collapsing,” states the report. Notably, some well-known names in the field have been hit the hardest. For example, The Daily Caller has lost 57% of its audience, the Drudge Report is down 81%, and The Federalist has experienced a staggering decline of 91%.
Though the most popular conservative-news site, FoxNews.com, has also seen a decrease in traffic, it has been relatively more resilient. The site has lost 22% of its traffic, representing 23 million fewer monthly site visitors compared to four years ago.
The underlying reason for this steep decline in clicks for far-right websites is primarily attributed to Facebook. For years, conservative publishers relied heavily on Facebook engagement as a primary source of traffic. The social media platform’s algorithm favored content that sparked outrage, as posts eliciting a negative reaction were more likely to be clicked on, liked, commented on, or shared.
According to the report, in 2020, the Facebook algorithm overwhelmingly favored conservatives. Figures such as Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino garnered tens of millions of clicks per month through Facebook engagement. Anti-transgender content, in particular, generated a disproportionate amount of clicks for conservative websites, according to a progressive media analysis group.
In response to criticism from Congress and international organizations about Facebook’s exploitation by bad actors to influence elections, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made algorithm changes in 2018. These changes aimed to prioritize content from friends and family over news publishers. In 2021, further adjustments were made to deprioritize content from public pages, leading to a decline in traffic for conservative websites.
The pro-Trump media landscape has experienced a dramatic collapse in traffic and revenue since the last election cycle. This decline can largely be attributed to changes in Facebook’s algorithm, which has shifted its emphasis away from news publishers. As a result, conservative websites have seen a significant decrease in their once loyal audience.
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