What impact will the decline and fall of Mueller have on lefty media profitability? Probably not a very good one. Unless the media can come up with a shinier object, it might end up losing out to the even less reliable lefty conspiracy theory outlets.

Meanwhile the New York Times, one of the media outlets riding the Mueller boom, just went for a bumpy ride.

The New York Time Company saw its stock tumble as much as 20% on Wednesday after the newspaper publisher said it expects advertising revenue to shrink by high-single digits in the third quarter. 

The company said it expects total ad revenue to decline in the high-single digits in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Digital ad revenue, which is becoming a bigger chunk of the publisher’s business, is expected fall by high-single digits as well. 

The sluggish forecast is a concerning sign for the New York Times as the segment accounted for 48.1% of the publication’s total ad revenue in the second quarter. 

This makes the Times and other media properties as vulnerable as the likes of BuzzFeed.

The Times needs a hedge against social media and algorithm shakeups by locking in subscribers, but its goal looks more unreachable than ever.

The Times also said it added 197,000 digital-only subscribers during the period bringing its total subscriber base to 4.7 million. The publication’s goal is to hit 10 million total subscriptions by 2025. 

That won’t happen.

And without Trump, the Times wouldn’t be doing nearly as well as it is.