Spurned by Social Media, Publishers Chase Readers on WhatsApp
News outlets are experimenting with a feature in the world’s most popular messaging app that allows them to send links and headlines directly to followers.
An illustration of a man sitting on a green chair reading a newspaper called “World News” as he looks at his phone behind it. Credit... Jackson Gibbs
Many digital news publishers have been desperately searching for a life raft. Traffic to news sites has fallen sharply, along with the ad revenue those clicks generate, partly because Google and Facebook decided to make news less prominent on their platforms.
Late last year, the app introduced WhatsApp Channels, a kind of one-way broadcasting system that allows publishers to send links and headlines directly to followers. Numerous outlets are using it as a way to draw in readers and build direct relationships with an audience that is largely outside the United States.
“It has become a huge source of traffic actually, larger than X,” said Marta Planells, senior director of digital news at Noticias Telemundo, the news arm of Telemundo.
