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Digital publishers are turning to WhatsApp’s Channels feature to share content directly with readers, test out new products, and create a relationship with readers all over the world.
The Big Headline: Platforms like Facebook and Google leaned on publishers to drive engagement and attract ad revenue but later shifted focus to opinion content, leaving publishers behind. WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app in the world, gives publishers a fresh way to reach and hook readers at scale.
Between the Lines: WhatsApp Channels — a relatively new feature that allows publishers to send followers links, headlines, and other content — is trending.
- Publishers like CNN, The New York Times, BBC News, and The Wall Street Journal have amassed millions of followers on Channels, most outside the US.
- Marta Planells, senior director of digital news at Noticias Telemundo, the news vertical of Telemundo, told NYT that Channels “has become a huge source of traffic actually, larger than X” — historically a major platform for news sharing.
- And publishers are using Channels in unique ways, including creating feeds for specific news topics, marketing new products like newsletters and podcasts, and experimenting with new formats.
The Next Edition: While Channels doesn’t drive the same user traffic as Google and Facebook, engagement is growing, especially as it leans into the biggest trend in social media right now — private messaging. That naturally lends itself to people sharing news articles from Channels to a private thread. With the ability to paywall specific Channels coming in the near future, the feature could program both a healthier and more lucrative town square.
Go Deeper: WhatsApp is Meta’s growth engine.
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