Trump calls the New York Times ‘failing’ as the paper’s subscriptions hit a 13-year high

Whenever President Trump mentions The New York Times in one of his Twitter rants, he almost always prefaces the paper’s name with the word, “failing.” Trump may desperately want the paper, which leads the way in its adversarial reporting on his administration, to fail, but the numbers say otherwise — bigly.

According to Fortune, the paper’s subscriptions saw a huge boost this fourth quarter, adding 265,000 new paying readers in the last three months of the year. It’s the most significant increase since Trump was elected president and many observers think the paper’s success is a direct result of Trump’s presidency.

“A strong quarter capped a strong year,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Thompson said in a statement. “After just three years, we are already three-quarters of the way to achieving our five-year goal of doubling digital revenue.”

“Our present momentum is broad-based and far less reliant on the politics at the moment than the surge of two years ago,” Thompson said on a recent conference call.

The Times, along with other outlets such as CNN, have been frequent targets of Trump’s fury when it comes to the press. Speaking to CNBC yesterday, Thompson mentioned Trump’s characterization of the Times and other outlets as the “enemy of the people” and the potential danger that creates.

“It could encourage people to do crazy things in relation to news organizations and individual reporters,” Thompson said.

In the wake of a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and a series of mail bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and media figures last year, Trump took to Twitter and blamed the “Fake News Media, the true enemy of the people,” for fanning the flames.

Earlier this year, Trump slammed the press as “crazed lunatics” who have “given up” on reporting the truth.

“With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse. Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!” he tweeted.

The good news for the Times comes during a dark period for digital media. At the start of the this year, Vice Media laid off around 250 employees. Soon after, it was reported that McClatchy had offered voluntary buyouts to 450 employees. As The Cut reported earlier this month, Verizon, which owns HuffPost, Yahoo, and AOL, laid off 7 percent of its staff. BuzzFeed cut 15 percent of its employees, and the Gannett Company, which owns more than 1,000 daily and weekly newspapers in the U.S., cut around 400 jobs.

Featured image via Flickr

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.