News leaders deal with the post-Trump era | TheHill

News executives from several top publications and outlets say the end of Donald TrumpDonald TrumpEx-DOJ official Rosenstein says he was not aware of subpoena targeting Democrats: report Ex-Biden adviser says Birx told him she hoped election turned out 'a certain way' Cheney rips Arizona election audit: 'It is an effort to subvert democracy' MORE’s presidency is a challenge for their organizations, while the sense of "crisis" in current events shows no signs of abating.Speaking at a conference hosted by the Financial Times this week, executives from The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Vanity Fair and NBC News acknowledged that Trump's continued importance in Republican politics is one nod to a relatively unchanged status quo.“We talk a lot about the post-Trump era. “And all of a sudden over the past year, many of those things went away.”While ratings soared during Trump's presidency — as supporters and critics alike sought to keep up with the frenetic pace of Washington and track the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest — numbers have dropped in the first five months of Biden's presidency.Ratings for cable and broadcast news outlets have all dropped and publications like The New York Times have seen subscription growth rates decline.Oppenheim and Goldberg acknowledged that Trump’s exit — along with easing pandemic restrictions — have driven down news consumption.“From an audience standpoint, it is fair to say that we’re in a bit of a down cycle in terms of audience appetite for news,” Oppenheim said.According to Nielsen Ratings statistics, “NBC Nightly News” averaged 8.26 million viewers at the end of January.