In this live-stream monologue TJ Walker analyzes why Fox News Channel consistently ranks as the most trusted news source. He argues two main reasons: Fox’s ideological positioning as the network for viewers who distrust other media, and—more importantly—Fox’s organizational loyalty and consistency in retaining on-air talent. Walker draws this lesson out for media organizations and independent creators, advising consistent publishing and maintaining the same faces to build audience trust.
Chapters
A new poll out shows that Fox News Channel is once again the most trusted name in news. Now, some of you heard me just say that the headline, and your response is, well, of course, that's obvious. That's all. I watch others of you hear that and say, that's crazy. That's insane. It's not even news. Why is Fox News consistently showing up as the most trusted news source? I think there are two main reasons. One of those reasons is something that other media organizations, large and small, can really learn from. Now, the first big reason that Fox is number one is they are different. But they're different. Not just stylistically, not just having better looking news anchors, although that's a part of it. They're different because they have positioned themselves as the only news network in the United States that caters to people who hate the rest of the news media, who think the rest of the news media is ideologically biased against them and their values. So that's a part of Fox's value proposition. No surprise there. They are the conservative Republican News Network. That part isn't easily transferable to other organizations. Not everyone can be that. Most news organizations don't want to be that. There is something else Fox is doing that's brilliant. That has nothing to do with ideology. It is simply loyalty. Fox is loyal to their staff. First of all, Rupert Murdoch is loyal to Roger Ailes. Ailes has been the only guy ever even thought of to head up the news channel. He created it. There's never been any talk, oh, ratings are down 0.1%. Let's bring in someone else, talk about replacing Roger Ailes. That's not it. And then more important, from the standpoint of the viewers, Roger Ailes does not monkey around with the online or the on air talent. People forget Bill O'Reilly wasn't that popular his first year or even his first two years. It took a while, but here he is almost 20 years later and he's on TV every single day. Sean Hannity didn't really have any TV experience when he started. Was a little bit rough on the air. First year. What did Roger Ailes do? Do a quick focus group and quickly hire a more experienced, older conservative talk show? No, he trained him, stuck with him. Here we are 20 years later, Sean Hannity is there. And whether it's Steve Doocy in the morning, whether it is Brian Kilmeade, you look at day, part after day, part night, part, wherever you are on the calendar. And Fox News Channel has, by and large the very same people they've had for 20 years. It's unprecedented. Sure, you can look back to examples of Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw having a long, long stretch on broadcast news. But look at the broadcast news people. I mean, ABC News has had five anchors in nine years. Fox is pretty much the only news organization left that has any loyalty. Certainly if it's a news organization where people can watch the news all day long, they are without peer. I mean, CNN, MSNBC, I couldn't tell you who half their 3/4 of their hosts are. They're in one day, out the other. And here's the problem for CNN and MSNBC and the other competitors for Fox consumers, news consumers are bombarded with more choices than ever. You've got this app, you've got BuzzFeed, you've got a gazillion things coming in from Facebook. You don't know who to trust because every single day it's a new face from someone you've never heard of. With Fox, at least you know who you're dealing with. You know their perspectives, you know their biases and it comes across as a familiar face. So that's really my big advice to media organizations. Doesn't matter if you have 10,000 reporters or if you are a one person consulting shop and you do a twice a week video on YouTube. My message to you is just be consistent, be loyal, use the same face. Now if you're a one person business, obviously that part is easy. But be consistent. My videos here on this channel are not the slickest, fanciest production, but they are consistent. Pretty much every day I bring new content to you. I talk about things in the news that relate to communicating in the media and public speaking. And I try to be consistent for you virtually every day, certainly on average a handful every single week. And I try to do this for years. And that's why while my audience isn't considerable, it's bigger than the audiences of my competitors that I compare myself to. So that's really the message. Be consistent. Use a consistent face. When you're trying to communicate ideas to the media and ultimately viewers, news consumers, consumers of your content will reward you for your loyalty.
