In the media business, conservative media is one of the few niches where growth is occurring. From the newly published book, “Fixing Post-Truth Politics:”

For the past 25 years, conservative talk radio has been a growth industry that has launched well-known personalities other than (Rush) Limbaugh. Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin are among the more well-known members of a stable that goes scores deep both nationally and regionally in U.S. radio. On cable television, Bill O’Reilly hosted a nightly commentary show on Fox News for more than 20 years, and for 16 of those years, his was the highest-rated show on cable news.

The fact that conservative talk radio continues to be a growth industry spoke to Donald Trump in language he could understand, in more than one sense. Conservative talk radio is a growth industry because an ever-growing number of people are listening. Those listeners provide excellent ratings, which are monetized by advertising. The higher the ratings, the more advertisers are anxious to reach the audience, and rates therefore increase due to supply and demand.

Trump and his advisors listened to thousands of hours of conservative talk radio in the weeks and months leading up to the candidate’s pronouncement in 2015 that he would build a great wall along the Mexican border. Trump and his staff knew what issues were important to this large sector of the electorate which felt overlooked by both parties.

These issues and Trump’s positions on them produced a great opportunity for the candidate to talk to the hosts of these shows in language that everyone listening understood. Conservative talk radio listeners believed that perhaps finally there was a candidate who not only understood them but would listen to them and make their concerns a top priority if elected.

Many of them also felt that shows like Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s provided news that was more accurate than the “mainstream media.” The public’s opinion of the established news outlets was falling faster than their opinion of members of Congress and used car salespeople.

The fact that some networks have obvious leanings in their coverage has something to do with the wishes of their owners, who are looking more at their bottom lines than political loyalties. According to “Fixing Post-Truth Politics:”

How often have you heard someone say, “All I want is a news organization that reports just the facts and nothing but the facts?” Because of the factors outlined in this chapter, that model is no longer economically feasible. If every news organization did that, they would all be the same. In today’s media economy, you must stand out to be noticed and get eyeballs on your ads to generate the revenue to cover the costs of doing business (and hopefully generate a profit). Be first or be last.

Fox News and MSNBC understood this trend many years ago. They quickly realized that becoming merely a copy of CNN — their primary competitor in the 24-hour news channel niche — would be a path to financial red ink. So, they catered to specific political mindsets – MSNBC went Democratic / liberal, and Fox News went Republican / conservative.

Those were brilliant business strategies. Data from Nielsen, the company that gathers viewership data that helps determine ratings, showed that Fox News was the most-watched of the cable news channels for the 15^th straight year in 2016. MSNBC’s ratings showed substantial year-over-year improvement in 2016 compared to 2015, though the network still finished third behind Fox and CNN. …

A “just-the-facts” approach to news delivery traditionally did not incorporate political favoritism. But the company that is standing out among cable news providers went that route. Fox’s high ratings have brought great financial success, much like the conservative radio talk shows. And make no mistake, other news providers are looking for a way to gain attention and consumer eyeballs just like Fox.

One such provider may be Sinclair Broadcast Group, which will own 233 local television stations in 108 U.S. markets once its purchase of Tribune Media-owned stations is closed later this year. The company reportedly sends “must-run” conservative commentary segments to its local stations.

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan warned in an op-ed that Sinclair has a documented history of skewing affiliates’ news programming to the right:

The stakes are high — and not just for Sinclair’s business interests. There’s evidence that when Sinclair takes over, conservative content gets a powerful platform.

When Sinclair bought Washington’s WJLA-TV in 2014, the new owners quickly moved the station to the right, as my colleague Paul Farhi repeatedly has documented. It added conservative commentary pieces from a Sinclair executive, Mark Hyman, and public affairs programming with conservative hosts. (The deal would give Sinclair a second Washington station, WDCW.)

And Sinclair regularly sends “must-run” segments to its stations across the country. One example: an opinion piece by a Sinclair executive that echoed President Trump’s slam at the national news media and what he calls the “fake news” they produce.

Some of Sinclair’s local journalists objected — this commentary, they reasonably complain, is presented as though it were part of the news report.

Now comes the report, which is unconfirmed at this point, that Sinclair is wooing Hannity and O’Reilly to host programming on its local network, which — keep in mind — has affiliations with ALL of the major networks, not just Fox. Here’s a list (pre-Tribune Media acquisition).

If you start to see these conservative commentaries on your local channels and wonder why, remember that Sinclair Broadcasting is well aware of the decisions Fox News made decades ago and how well those decisions have paid off. According to “Fixing Post-Truth Politics:”

… conservative-based media is a growth market and continues to grow in the wake of the 2016 election. Fox News’s dominance in cable news is attributable to that business decision made many years ago, recognizing an underserved market.