July 24, 2024
President Biden Bypasses Mainstream Media in Big Announcement
As traditional news outlets struggle with readership and revenue, social media has become a preferred platform for politicians. President Biden bypassed mainstream media by announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race directly through his social media accounts, catching many by surprise. For PR pros, effectively reaching audiences on social media requires strategies that align with platform-specific trends and user behaviors.
While more politicians are using social media to communicate, data suggest that social media referrals are declining while newsletters and direct engagement methods are becoming increasingly important for audience reach. A new report from LION Publishers shows a significant shift toward direct communication methods over traditional social media platforms.
While AI Expands, Data Declines
Content creation is rapidly changing as AI continues to emerge. New research from Capterra finds that by 2026, nearly half of all business social media content will be AI-generated, up from 39% in 2024. Condé Nast has issued a cease-and-desist letter to AI search engine Perplexity, demanding it stop using content from its publications, which include The New Yorker, Vogue, and Wired, accusing the startup of plagiarism.
As AI expands, concerns are mounting around the sustainability of the emerging technology. New research from the Data Provenance Initiative reveals a sharp decline in the availability of data used for training AI models due to increased restrictions from web sources. Meta recently announced their vision for open source AI, releasing its latest models which aim to make technology more broadly accessible for developers and organizations.
Newspapers and Magazines Must Innovate to Survive
To stem the tide of newspaper decline, some publishers are suggesting new ways to reach audiences. Newspapers should emphasize the importance of uniting with natural allies, including diverse organizations, and focusing on reader metrics over circulation. Maintaining a strong news brand and fostering trust is key. New research suggests more than half of consumers would recommend a brand if they trusted it.
Despite the struggles of the newspaper industry, the number of reporters and editors in the U.S. has remained relatively constant over the past three decades, according to census data. While newspaper jobs have plummeted, many journalists have transitioned to other sectors such as online publishing, nonprofits, and digital-only outlets.
Sequence Summaries: Biden Bypass, AI Advances, and Publisher Partnerships
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