Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

President Donald Trump often labels media companies as "failing." He's taken shots at BuzzFeed during press conferences. He's repeatedly pounded on CNN, and particularly enjoyed that network's recent journalism stumble.

And of course, Trump has hammered the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" this week, causing a political firestorm that has stretched across both parties.

If you follow the advertising business, you'd not be surprised to hear that traditional media business models are under a lot of pressure as consumer consumption habits are going through rapid changes driven by technology.

But here's an ongoing question: are the media companies Trump refers to as "failing" actually failing? Here's a look at how these companies are performing from an audience and financial perspective....

For consumers, having content options is no longer a luxury, but an imperative. And so, too, are the multitude of devices that they use to engage with that content—be it a TV, tablet or soon-to-be emerging technologies.

But having a plethora of content options at our collective fingertips doesn’t necessarily mean consumers are connecting with ALL choices ALL of the time. In fact, according to the second quarter Nielsen Total Audience Report, which focuses on what options consumers have in addition to how they use them, behaviors and usage are unique to the device being used. Consumers still spend most of their time on traditional platforms, but they also look to explore the wide range of content channels made available by new media.

Adults still spend the most time watching TV, as the average adult spends more than four hours each day watching live TV. The average monthly channels available on TV (206) is only a fraction of what’s available on digital apps or websites, so consumers are using more of them. In the second quarter of 2016, consumers visited 55 PC sites and used 28 smartphone apps, compared to 20 TV channels viewed. Even though Americans have fewer channels to choose from than they did last year, the percentage of channels they actually view has remained consistent at 9.6% year over year from 2015-2016....

The current state of the media universe presents a bounty of boundless choice to today’s consumer. Like the cosmos, which is contemplated much in current times, the proliferation of devices and the abundance of media choices is presenting endless options for the consumer and endless challenges and opportunities for the marketer. Nielsen is reaching new frontiers by totaling up audiences across devices and burgeoning viewing platforms. Consumer engagement is reaching new heights.

The data used in this graphic is inclusive of multicultural audiences. Hispanic consumer audiences are composed of both English and Spanish speaking representative populations....

The 18-24 crowd has used the internet as its primary source for news for several years. Now it is specifying “social media” as its main source of news, with that niche overtaking television for the first time.

The information comes from a study done by The Oxford University Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. It looked at consumers of news and information around the world for its “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2016.” This is the fifth year it has issued such a report. It’s a fascinating read.

28 percent of 18-24 year-olds say social media is their main source of news, compared to 24 percent who cite television.

Since 2013, the number of people in the US who say they get their news from social media has doubled—46 percent now use social media for news....