From a column by Politico's Jack Shafer pushing back against the plan for more than 200 newspapers, led by the Boston Globe and including the New York Times, to publish coordinated editorials on August 16 defending the freedom of the press against the supposed threat posed by President Trump: "Another problem with a nationally coordinated pro-press catechism is that the audience likely to reap the greatest benefit from the haranguing—Trump and many in his base—tends not to read newspapers in the first place."
Mr. Shafer cites no evidence for his claim that Trump and "many in his base" tend not to read newspapers. But an article in Axios by Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei — two of Shafer's former Politico colleagues — reported:
President Trump spends substantial time and energy ridiculing the media. He spends even more time consuming —and obsessing about — it.
Print copies of three newspapers....he does consume — often in huge doses — lots of traditional media...When Trump was in the tower, he got hard copies of the N.Y. Times and N.Y. Post (which a friend calls "the paper of record for him" — he especially studies Page Six). He "skims The Wall Street Journal," the friend said....Trump knows specific bylines in the papers and when he's interviewed by a reporter, he can recite how the reporter has treated him over the years, even in previous jobs....With an allergy to computers and phones, he works the papers. With a black Sharpie in hand, he marks up the Times or other printed stories. When he wants action or response, he scrawls the staffers' names on that paper and either hands the clip to them in person, or has a staffer create a PDF of it — with handwritten commentary — and email it to them.
This matches what I hear about the president's reading habits. As for "many in his base," Trump did better in the 2016 election with older and higher-income voters, according to exit polls (which are suspect, but are nonetheless widely relied on). Older people and higher-income people (who can afford it) are also more likely to be print newspaper subscribers. Sweeping generalizations such as claiming Trump and his base tend not to read newspapers are the sort of thing that come off as condescending and inaccurate, and feed Trump's sense, and that of his base, that the press isn't treating them accurately or fairly.
