Washington Post – Reprinted from a mass exodus of customers Following his refusal to endorse Kamala Harris, Trump “aggressively stepped up his paid advertising campaign” on social media platforms, according to one report, thereby promoting stories critical of Donald Trump.
Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism last week over his decision to eliminate the vice president’s support, leading to the resignation of several high-level employees and the loss of more than 250,000 digital subscribers.
On Thursday, news site Semaphore reported that the publication had launched an advertising blitz earlier in the week on social media sites like Facebook that promote anti-Trump coverage.
Promoted Stories The former president’s campaign rhetoric focused on misrepresentations, supporters leaving his rallies early and Trump’s controversial comments about immigrants eating dogs in Ohio. The semaphore reported.
In contrast, Semaphore found that promoted stories about his Democratic challenger were neutral in tone and informative.
Before Monday, the newspaper had run about a dozen ads on Facebook for the month of October, primarily promoting the Washington Post brand and avoiding any mention of Trump.
The New York Post contacted WaPo for comment.
A source close to the situation told the New York Post that stories promoted by The Washington Post on social media represent high-performing content.
According to the source, the content of the ad post is taken directly from the related reporting.
“This is nothing new,” the source insisted.
The Washington Post’s promoted posts include a mix of content from all of its areas, including climate, style and other sections, the source said.
The Beltway paper’s increase in paid ads this week may also be a reflection of Facebook parent company Meta’s policy that prohibits new ads during the week of the election, which is scheduled for Tuesday.
The Washington Post was likely to get some new ads before the tech giant halted new ad buying, a source said.
As of Thursday, at least 250,000 readers — or 10% — canceled their digital subscriptions to The Washington Post in apparent protest of Bezos’ move to end the newspaper’s decades-long practice of endorsing a presidential candidate. According to National Public Radio.
Bezos, Amazon’s billionaire founder, published a guest essay on Monday saying the decision to drop support was a matter of “principle,” aimed at dispelling the perception that his newspaper was biased.
But the move was met with opposition from readers on social media as well as journalists who are either current or former Washington Post employees, such as award-winning Watergate spies Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
at least three The editorial staff resigned from the newspaper.
After Bezos’s decision was announced last Friday, some of the newspaper’s top editors and columnists met to discuss the controversy.
David Shipley, the paper’s opinion editor, overheard his colleagues criticizing Bezos for damaging the publication’s reputation as an “independent journalism organization.” According to Washington Free BeaconFrom which the audio of the meeting was obtained.
One staffer reportedly told Shipley that “the one thing that cannot happen in this country is Trump getting another four years.”
Shipley responded by telling employees that they were welcome to express their frustrations, but that they would either have to come to terms with Bezos’s decision and move on – or resign.
“Whatever decision you make, I’m okay with it,” Shipley said.
“I really want to tell you not to get caught in the middle. Don’t stay here if you don’t want to.”
Shipley told his colleagues that he spent an hour on the phone with Bezos to get him to change his mind and allow the editorial board to issue Harris’ endorsement — but the mogul refused to budge.
He said that while he agreed with the principle that you don’t have to support the president, he took issue with Bezos’s “timing and the way the timing could be read.”
Something similar is happening at the Los Angeles Times, where billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has blocked the editorial board from publishing an endorsement of Harris.
Soon-Shiong said he would like the editorial board to present a comparative analysis of both candidates and their positions together so that readers can decide for themselves whom to support.
According to reports, at least three LA Times employees walked off the job in protest and 10,000 to 18,000 readers canceled their subscriptions to the newspaper.
