My guess is no, they’re not screwed. Yes, the election this year was an incredibly big deal, and it drew a lot of eyeballs to newspaper web sites, TV news programs, and probably even radio shows.
Podcasts were born. News web sites defined themselves by their election coverage. Rumor has it that if you have a copy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times from yesterday, you’re sitting on a collector’s item that was sold out throughout the city.
Undoubtedly there will be a dip in readership as the fervor over the election dies down, but as anyone who has thrown a bunch of half-cooked spaghetti at the wall knows, some of it will stick.
I’m betting that there are a large number of people who have learned news habits this election, and for many those habits will persist. Retention is the name of the game for news outlets right now, and reminding people that elections aren’t the only things that happen in politics.
Eat Sleep Publish is a Seattle-based blog that explores the difficulties and opportunities currently facing the publishing industry. 
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