AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson
Vice President Kamala Harris is proving to be a ratings magnet, overshadowing even former President Donald Trump in the race for media attention through the campaign season.
As the 2024 election heats up, the traditional narrative of Trump as the media’s favorite for boosting television ratings and online traffic is being challenged.
According to Semafor, Washington Post CEO Will Lewis recently revealed in an internal memo that the paper has seen a notable surge in subscriptions over the past month. This uptick is largely attributed to the increased interest in stories about Harris. The memo underlines a broader trend across major news outlets, with Harris-related content outpacing Trump stories in driving reader engagement.
This shift isn’t just confined to print media, according to Semafor’s Ben Smith. Television networks have also experienced a significant boost in viewership tied to Harris.
Last week’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) was a massive ratings success. Over the four nights of the DNC, MSNBC and CNN averaged 21.8 million viewers in prime time—a slight but significant improvement over the 21.6 million average from the 2020 convention and well ahead of the Republican National Convention’s (RNC) 19.1 million average.
Notably, MSNBC emerged as the clear leader, pulling in the largest audience among the key demographic of 25 to 54-year-olds. The network’s success during the DNC marked its largest viewership for a Democratic convention since it began broadcasting, with online traffic for Harris-related stories also spiking across the board.
