A regional daily claims its use of an instant messaging service is delivering a proportionally greater flow of traffic to its website than social media websites.
The Oxford Mail’s WhatsApp news service, which provides readers with a “mail shot” of links to certain stories, now has more than 1,200 subscribers.
The service was launched in the middle of last year and assistant editor Jason Collie says it is now outperforming other channels in terms of directing readers to the Newsquest-owned title’s website.
Jason told Media Guardian that the service’s direct nature meant it had a greater chance of catching a reader’s interest.
He added: “Proportionately, WhatsApp brings in a four or five times greater conversion rate to page views than our daily email bulletin, and it’s six or seven times greater when compared to Twitter.
“The project has exceeded expectations both in the size of our audience and feedback from readers.” The full interview can be read here.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Good on the Oxford Mail for using this service in a clever way to attract readers’ interest. I’m not surprised it outperforms Twitter – I expect the Mail is like many newspapers in that it gets a tiny amount of traffic through Twitter compared to other social media, primarily Facebook. Media organisations and journalists place far more importance on Twitter than it deserves.
Report this comment