Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter has provided plenty of reasons to leave the platform: replacing verified check marks with paid subscriptions, scaling back content moderation, unplugging servers, and thwarting access to news sites, to name a few. But many users have yet to bite the bullet and sign off for good — and for news organizations, concerns about driving traffic have made it even harder to give up Twitter.
In April, NPR made headlines when it left the platform after Musk labeled the outlet "U.S. state-affiliated media." Six months later, the effects of leaving Twitter have been negligible, Gabe Bullard writes in his latest for Nieman Reports. A memo circulated to NPR staff notes that traffic had dropped only by one percent. (Twitter accounted for two percent of traffic just before the posting stopped.) In Twitter's place, NPR's engagement team are finding new ways to reach their audience, from Instagram to Threads to live blogs.
"As a platform becomes less reliable — either editorially or technically — staying becomes more fraught," Bullard writes. "And as NPR has demonstrated, you may not be giving up all that much if you walk away."
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