Is it money? The New Statesman is backed by Mike Danson, a billionaire willing to bankroll the millions in annual losses of the magazine without flinching. As the SNP’s Cyber-Nats demonstrate all too loudly, ferocious activity is not evidence of numbers. The left is more active on Twitter undoubtedly and it gives the micro-blogging site a hostile atmosphere for right-of-centre users, however election after election shows that, in the words of David Cameron, “Britain is not Twitter”. Academic research suggests that left-wing Twitter is more active and that activity is mainly preaching to the converted and engaging with other left-wingers. Is the left’s supposed dominance of Twitter entirely true? The left are are certainly more active on Twitter, in terms of followers however has more than any of the left-wing politics sites. The only place where the left-wing media seems dominant is on social media, Twitter in particular. They match the left for reach, similarly they tend to preach to the converted. Of course GB News has a television channel so can’t be compared like-for-like, it also has an active online video audience, as do the Spectator and Unherd. Owen Jones has his own lucrative YouTube channel. Novara Media’s videos and podcasts are apparently seen by far more viewers and listeners than will read their articles. The Canary and Skwawkbox generate engagement on Facebook which outstrips their own native website audience by a multiple. The question that needs answering is why are right-of-centre news and views outlets out-performing – in terms of audience reach – left-of-centre news and views websites? Some of them will argue that we’re looking in the wrong place – the audience is not just on their website. To give you an idea how much worse they are faring after the Corbyn-era glory days, consider this, Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic alone had last month more online readers than the New Statesman, Novara Media and Morning Star combined!Įven the upstart newly launched GB News website has more traffic than most left-wing websites and those same websites say GB News is failing. Like-for-like The Spectator has double the New Statesman’s readership. In comparison to right-of-centre political news and opinion sites they are well behind. The short answer is not very well in terms of raw audience size. Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic Has More Online Readers than the New Statesman, Novara Media and Morning Star CombinedĪn article in this week’s New Statesman (“ In the Post-Corbyn World, What Next for Alternative Left Media?“) spurred Guido to do some research into their traffic and how they are performing generally.
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