Wall Street Journal ad campaign: ‘Not everyone was blindsided’ by Trump win

The Wall Street Journal is touting its objectivity through the 2016 presidential campaign in a new television advertising campaign.

“Not everyone was blindsided by this year’s presidential election result. Over 2 million Wall Street Journal subscribers, whether they were excited about the outcome, or nervous about it, were ready,” Gerard Baker, the paper’s editor-in-chief, says in an ad.

“Because unlike so many news organizations, the Wall Street Journal covered this election the way we’ve been covering elections for the past 127 years: Objectively, and across the whole nation,” Baker says.

Readers who were paid to be in the ad praise the Journal as well, with one saying the paper underscored the fact that “this vote could go either way.”

{mosads}Republican nominee Donald Trump pulled off a surprise win in the Electoral College, while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton captured the popular vote.

The ad ends by asking people to subscribe for the paper’s coverage of Trump’s first 100 days in office, which begins on Jan. 20.

The Journal did not endorse either candidate before the election.

The ads have been seen on Fox News and Fox Business, channels that are owned by the Murdoch family via 21st Century Fox. Rupert Murdoch purchased the Journal in 2007.

The campaign by the Journal is the latest example of a publication trying to use unprecedented interest in the election to boost its subscriptions.

Vanity Fair recently launched a campaign dubbing itself as “the magazine Trump doesn’t want you to read,” seeing a record number of new subscriptions as a result.

— This report was updated at 9:15 a.m.