The managing editor of The New York Times says US President Donald Trump has been good for the business of journalism.

Joseph Kahn, who was appointed to The Times' leadership team in 2016, is in Sydney to give the Andrew Olle Media Lecture on Friday.

He told Lateline the demand for in-depth White House coverage had boosted global readership, but that the President also posed some challenges.

The Trump presidency — how good has it been for the news business?

The Trump presidency for the news business — literally the business — has been very good. For the news media industry, it's been a big challenge. But interest in the Trump presidency, enthusiasm for almost any kind of in-depth coverage of the Trump presidency has been a major tool of engagement for our readership not just in the United States but everywhere around the world ... We call it the Trump bump. It's been good for the business that we're in which is basically a digital subscription business. He continues to pay dividends in that respect.

Why he says Trump is a threat

He has managed to portray the news media as his enemy and to do his best to undercut the credibility of the product that we produce with as many of his supporters as he possibly can. We think we'll see that through, but he's a frontal challenge to us. The two are really connected. The fact that he's taken on the news media industry as his enemy has in fact made the news media's coverage of the Trump presidency even more interesting to anybody who wants to understand his impact on the world.

What is NYT doing about Trump's attacks on their credibility?

Honestly, it sounds a little like a cliche but we're just trying to do our jobs. You know, we're not going to pick a fight, a direct fight, with the president of the United States. It doesn't make any sense.

Why won't NYT go to war with Trump?

We're not in opposition media. We're not a partisan media. You know, we have an opinion section of The New York Times where we have staff editorials and we have columnists and op-ed writers who take their own positions on the president of the United States but the newsroom of the New York Times does not. And we're trying to cover both his presidency and his impact on the country and on the world and the reasons that a number of Americans support him very strongly as a news story.

Does he really think Trump poses a threat to journalism?