Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Back in June, I talked with Parse.ly data analyst Conrad Lee about why stories about Donald Trump weren’t attracting the same audience online as they were on television. At the time, based on data from more than 100,000 news articles from 300 newsrooms, it looked as if Trump stories were actually less popular than stories about other candidates, including Hillary Clinton. This was before the convention and the formal nomination of both candidates of course.

Lee took an another look at the data last week and found that things have shifted. Trump still receives the lion's share of articles, even from publishers that are left-leaning.

Today the data show that Trump stories get more page views than stories about Clinton do. Both the overall number of stories and page views per post peaked around the conventions in late July, before dipping again in August.

Lee makes no distinction between positive and negative stories. Both candidates have been the subject of intense reporting in recent weeks. But this is an interesting set of data nonetheless as we think about the proper role of journalists going into the first debate next week, when 75 percent of voters plan to tune in....