One sign of a different campaign: Two-thirds drop in TV ad spending

Among the many strange aspects of this election cycle is the dearth of television advertising.

FiveThirtyEight senior writer Farai Chideya reports:

Tim Wesolowski, the chief financial officer of the broadcast group E.W. Scripps, said in a recent company earnings call that in the third quarter, the two presidential candidates spent about a third of what their predecessors spent on the company’s stations in the third quarter of 2012. “Donald Trump in particular spent a fraction of what past Republican candidates have spent on television ads,” he said. The company took in $27 million from political ad buys in that period, half of what it anticipated.

Chideya explains:

In June, Trump bragged that he didn’t need to pay for exposure: “I make speeches, I talk to reporters,” he said. “I don’t even need commercials.” His strategy of relying on news coverage rather than ads for much of the race also meant the Clinton campaign could do less reciprocal spending.