• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The Biden Bump

Somewhat ironically, an election cycle that has been defined by age has benefitted a bunch of legacy media outfits, all of whom are presumably hoping to embrace the lesson of past presidential races: eyeballs are ephemeral, but business models and strategies last a lot longer.

joe biden
Not surprisingly, the last four weeks of this suddenly volatile presidential campaign cycle have injected a much-needed infusion of traffic, engagement, and momentum into a beleaguered legacy news industry. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP Photo/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
July 25, 2024

At one point on Saturday, July 13, about two hours after former president Donald Trump had narrowly avoided a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, more than 20 million people were watching news on a broadcast or cable television network. Leading digital news sites like NBC News and CNN saw an influx of nearly 1 million users every few minutes. “It was the equivalent of an entire election in four hours,” one NBC source told me.