poll up short : members of the media spent the early hours of election day wondering if donald trump would refuse to concede when he lost the election, but by late tuesday, they were wondering the exact opposite: when hillary clinton would call it quits. as the wall street journal reports, the media, armed with what proved to be awful polling data, completely missed the mark this cycle in its predictions. pundits and prognosticators painted a dire picture of mr. trump<u+2019>s path to 270 electoral votes in the run-up to the election, and the conventional wisdom was that mrs. clinton had a major advantage. the new york times<u+2019>s upshot had predicted mrs. clinton had an 85% chance of victory, while nate silver<u+2019>s fivethirtyeight pegged those chances at 71%. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s no question the polling was off. it wasn<u+2019>t capturing support for trump,<u+201d> cbs news president david rhodes said. meanwhile, in a column for cmo today, i looked at the media<u+2019>s attempt to soul search in the wake of the stunning result, arguing that an increasingly fragmented and polarized media landscape <u+2013> with news consumers spoon-fed their own opinions back to them in their facebook feeds <u+2013> greatly reduced the press<u+2019>s ability to influence the election, even with hard-hitting scoops and surprising newspaper editorial endorsements. ad fallout : madison avenue also was shocked by the election result, and now some top executives in the advertising community think the uncertainty could lead to a slowdown in ad spending growth next year , cmo today reports. publicis groupe<u+2019>s chief executive, maurice levy, said he believes there will be a slowdown in the first quarter as marketers adopt a <u+201c>wait and see<u+201d> approach. marketers will be curious about whether mr. trump enacts trade policies that affect big-spending categories such as the auto industry, said brian wieser, senior research analyst at pivotal research group. the ad world also is bracing for what new regulations mr. trump<u+2019>s administration might place on the industry over issues including data privacy and ad taxes. the current democratic administration has made data-privacy protections more of a focal point, and republican administrations tend to be more hands-off there. but since the result was such a surprise, the industry wonders who mr. trump will appoint at the industry<u+2019>s regulatory bodies, including the federal communications commission and federal trade commission. madison avenue isn<u+2019>t alone: as wsj reports, executives in all business sectors are trying to figure out what the impact of mr. trump<u+2019>s win will be. bain out : adam bain, twitter<u+2019>s chief operating officer and a well-known and well-liked ad executive, said wednesday that he was leaving the company to explore other opportunities, wsj reports. twitter chief financial officer anthony noto, who has served in that role since 2014, will replace mr. bain, who has deep connections across the ad world. mr. noto will continue on as cfo until the company finds a new finance chief, in addition to taking on mr. bain<u+2019>s responsibilities, which include global advertising sales and business development. at one point, mr. bain was seen as a possible ceo candidate, but he was made coo when jack dorsey came back to steward the struggling tech giant. since joining the company, mr. noto, a former investment banker, has taken an increasingly central role and has overseen twitter<u+2019>s push into live-streaming through partnerships with big media companies. meanwhile, after weeks of acquisition rumors from the likes of disney and salesforce, twitter last month said it was cutting 9% of its workforce and shutting down looping video app vine. settle down : it has been a rocky few months for mdc partners, but now the advertising holding company has reached an agreement in principle with the securities and exchange commission that could help clear the way to a potential sale, cmo today reports. the company, which owns agencies including 72andsunny, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to the sec to resolve all claims (and the company said it won<u+2019>t admit liability). last year, mdc said that the sec was investigating its accounting practices and the expenses of its then-chief executive, who resigned from the company in july 2015. the settlement will be something of a relief for mdc, which last week reported weak third-quarter earnings and announced it had hired liontree to evaluate its capital structure. the journal reported that mdc is exploring a sale as part of the broader review , though ceo scott kauffman maintained at a media conference wednesday that sale <u+201c>is not the mandate<u+201d> of the advisory firm. stephen colbert<u+2019>s live, election-night special on showtime took an unexpected and more serious turn as it became increasingly clear that donald trump was poised to win the election. [ nyt ] about 71.5 million people tuned in to watch election-night coverage during prime-time hours across different networks. [ politico ] viacom<u+2019>s incoming acting chief executive, bob bakish, laid out the struggling media company<u+2019>s plans going forward, regardless of whether it merges with cbs. [ wsj ] media and advertising investment banker terry kawaja joined the latest episode of the wsj media mix podcast to discuss new entrants in the m&a space and the growing dominance of facebook and google. [ cmo today ] nowthis posted a clip of cnn<u+2019>s van jones from election night that went viral, but cnn says it is a violation of its intellectual property rights. [ cmo today ] breitbart news, whose former chief stephen bannon joined the trump campaign this summer, is readying an expansion in the u.s. and new sites in germany and france. [ reuters ] mr. trump<u+2019>s win has increased the likelihood president barack obama<u+2019>s net-neutrality rules could be rolled back. broadband providers such as comcast and at&t have fought against the rules. [ wsj ] the election is raising doubts about the future of the at&t-time warner deal. mr. trump stated his opposition to the acquisition on the campaign trail, but it<u+2019>s unclear if he will push regulators to block it in office. [ cnn ] facebook and twitter are contending with their roles in shaping the american news environment and public opinion in the wake of the election. internally, facebook has been analyzing its effect on news consumption. [ bloomberg ] follow us on twitter: @wsjcmo , @digitalshields , @vranicawsj , @jackmarshall , @perlberg , @alexbruell , @srabil , @asharma subscribe to our morning newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox, at http://on.wsj.com/cmotodaysignup . write to steven perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com
cmo today: the media world reflects on polling misfire - wsj
steven perlberg