But he isn’t paid to influence people to do anything. He’s paid to bring in eyeballs . If he’s an influencer, then anyone working in an ad-supported business is an influencer. In which case of what use is the term? Ok great, anyone supported by ads is “influencing”. What now?
You could argue his job is influencing people.
> He’s a salaried columnist for a news organization.
In other words, he gets paid to influence people on behalf of a major news publication.
I posit that "influencer" is the general term for celebrities, politicians, journalists, priests, etc. Matt Levine is a traditional media influencer. The pope is a religious influencer. Biden is a political influencer. So on and so forth. The modern social media influencers are really independent influencers as they don't belong to a corporate, political or religious entity.