Investing

How Donald Trump Will Damage Media Sales From Election

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: March 1, 2016 6:27 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:33 pm

Presidential, gubernatorial and congressional campaigns fill the pockets of national and local media. Donald Trump will undercut that revenue, unless his competition can raise a great deal more money than they have already and spend a huge portion of the money on media ads directed at slowing Trump’s momentum.

Trump, as has been pointed out on many occasions, is a walking and talking PR machine. The media’s fascination with him allows him to get exposure that other presidential candidates envy. That is unlikely to change.

According to a Washington Post analysis, Jeb Bush spent $157 million to get slaughtered by the electorate. Of the Republicans still in the race, Ted Cruz has raised $100 million; about $46 million is from super PACs and other outside sources. Marco Rubio has raised a total of $87 million, of which $50 million is from sources outside the campaign’s direct fund-raising efforts. Trump has raised $25 million, and none of that is from outside the efforts of his own campaign (much of the money comes from Trump himself).

The Trump campaign may raise only a modest amount of money, if and when he moves into the general election. This is for the same reason he has spent so little on primaries and caucuses. If he can hold onto his PR exposure, hundreds of millions of dollars the media would have reaped in an election year will be cut to much lower levels.

The windfall of ad dollars that media counts on every four years isn’t coming.