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Immediately after the election, writers for outlets including The Hollywood Reporter and The Wall Street Journaldeclared that the results showed traditional media is no longer relevant. As proof, these pieces cited falling ratings for networks coupled with Donald Trump’s three-hour podcast with Joe Rogan, Kamala Harris’ interview on Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy and Elon Musk’s use of his social media platform X as a megaphone to support the Republican candidate.
Even before the first ballot was cast, it was clear that 2025 would be a year of change for long-established media businesses. The growth of AI, a continuing erosion of ad revenue, increasing network affiliation fees (reverse compensation) and 2025’s status as an “odd year” — one without the promise of political advertising revenues — mean that it was never going to be business as usual. In fact, I’m willing to bet that 2025 budgets already being considered include significant cost cutting and other changes.
What these plans and budgets are unlikely to include is support for managers charged with executing the new approaches. A May 2024 blog post by The Grossman Group’s David Grossman includes Harris Poll research that will come as no surprise to anyone working in media. In general, he says, 75% of employees and 63% of managers are feeling either ambivalent or burned out. It’s a fair guess that in battered industries, such as media, those percentages are higher. Then consider that most successful change happens when team members feel their leader is invested in their