New York, N.Y. (WBEN) - Kathleen Kingsbury, the opinion editor of The New York Times, announced Monday the media company's editorial board will no longer be endorsing political candidates in New York State races in their editorial articles.
This decision from the The Times adds to a growing list of media companies still active in print journalism that have made similar decisions.
"I'm not surprised, that's been the trend nationwide," said Mike Igoe in an interview with WBEN.
The former WGRZ-TV Consumer Reporter is now an Associate Professor of Communications at SUNY Fredonia, not to mention a Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Famer.
"Other major papers are already gone down that road, like The New York Daily News and The Miami Herald," Igoe added.
Although Kingsbury didn't specifically mention a reason why the editorial board has made their decision, many could speculate it's for similar reasons that other print journalism companies have shied away from opinion, such as attempts to cater to a larger audience.
"All the major media corporations are trying to cultivate their online presence, I think they don't want to put out any content that might potentially chase viewers and readers and listeners," Igoe said.
"It's not surprising that they want to continue to grow the business, my research shows that their online component of the New York Times is definitely showing growth, whereas the paper side of things is going down. No surprise there. And again, you know, even on a practical matter, when you consider some of the candidate things for a national audience, they just may not be interested in New York races or any other places around the country."
In addition, the media market has become saturated. With free articles being shared regularly on social media, it's integral for print journalism companies to stay competitive online, like cable news companies.
However, Igoe notes there's some irony when you compare predominant print journalism media companies to the big cable news giants, as both have evolved in different paths over the course of the last few decades.
"We see editorial pages or op-ed pages going on by side. But on the cable side of things, with FOX and MSNBC and CNN, they are going all out opinion. If you think about it, at night time, most of all those shows that used to be news blocks are all basically screaming fests or people's opinions," Igoe explained.
As far as whether or not people still think media companies will be viewed as objective rather than being biased based on endorsing a political candidate, Igoe believes people may not even think it matters, as the market is so saturated.
"The New York Times has been around a long time, but there's certainly many other media players who are relatively new. So people do have the opportunity, especially since the [smart]phone has become so popular to get so many sources of information," he said. "There's lots of information out there, so one source is not going to be necessarily the be all, do all for most people."
Despite this particular move from The Times, the paper’s editorial board will continue to endorse presidential candidates, as it has for more than 160 years.