Even news outlets perceived as politically neutral can benefit from today’s polarized media environment.
The past decade has seen a surge in partisan online news sites that patently skew toward one side of the American political spectrum, from the right-leaning Blaze Media to the openly liberal Axios. Money is a primary driver of this media polarization: User engagement translates to dollars in subscriptions or advertising. Online news outlets’ revenue depends upon attracting eyeballs from an increasingly polarized reading public known to avoid journalism that does not confirm their existing biases.
