Advertising
Assembly ‘Election Outlook’ Report: 2026 Midterms Projected to be the most expensive In history
Assembly Global
“Assembly is projecting a record $10.1 billion in political advertising spend during the 2025–2026 U.S. election cycle–a 15% increase from the last midterm cycle in 2022–making it the most expensive midterms in history.”
Campaigns
Can You Win a Congressional Seat Without Social Media?
404 Media
“Beriont, on the other hand, is not using social media at all. She’s been on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook in the past, but has not been on social media since 2020 after getting frustrated with the kind of discussions and divisiveness she saw there.”
How To Engage Podcasts: 8 Lessons Advocates can take from Zohran Mamdani’s Podcast Blitz
MRSS
“Leading up to New York’s Mayoral primary on June 24, Mamdani appeared on at least 29 podcasts and digital shows spanning more than 13 hours of interviews.”
I read 50M+ vendor disbursements so you don't have to.
Jordan Lieberman
“Before 2020, 61% of political consultants and vendor principals we looked at were based in the DC metro area. After COVID, that share fell to 36%, and remote or hybrid job descriptions surged from 4% to 44%.”
Content
Youtube is eating cable news
Chaotic Era
“A CNN segment producer knows that bringing in a YouTuber with 1 million loyal subscribers means tapping into a highly-engaged audience that’s primed to clip and share the network’s content across social media.”
Technology
Cuomo deepfaked himself. You can too.
Columbia Journalism Review
“We found that the platforms ranged from anything goes, in the case of Grok, to highly restricted, in the case of Sora, OpenAI’s new video app. In the middle was ChatGPT’s 4o image generator, which allowed about half of the figures we tested to be shown at a protest. It generated images of Vance and Kamala Harris, along with all New York mayoral candidates. OpenAI loosened the restrictions on image generation earlier this year when it launched its new image model.”
New OpenAI Research Touts Political Bias Down 30% in Latest ChatGPT Models
Decrypt
“Staudacher said political bias appeared only rarely and with 'low severity,' even under stress tests that deliberately sought to provoke slanted or emotional language.”