[HN Gopher] News Publisher Quit Facebook. Readership Went Up
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       News Publisher Quit Facebook. Readership Went Up
        
       Author : thejteam
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2021-04-02 10:42 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
        
       | ppf wrote:
       | It's something I learned to be true on a personal level, and I'm
       | sure it applies to many other levels - giving yourself away for
       | free on Facebook and other social media devalues your social
       | contributions and presence as a human being.
        
         | readflaggedcomm wrote:
         | Gaining quality readers by ditching a quantity aggregator makes
         | sense. But the only proof we're given that Stuff's readers
         | valued them more was a single donation spike.
        
       | inglor_cz wrote:
       | Interesting. I have a blog. I deleted my Facebook presence in
       | July 2019. Readership went up, same as sales of my books.
       | 
       | Is it possible that Facebook sells you an audience that would
       | have found you anyway?
        
         | echoradio wrote:
         | Genuinely curious: What other ways would your audience have
         | found you?
         | 
         | I've given thought to how a new web site or business quickly
         | grows an audience without social. With search engines, the site
         | still needs to be "seen" by the engine and compete with more
         | established sites.
        
           | inglor_cz wrote:
           | I have a free reprint policy, so my texts are often reprinted
           | elsewhere with attribution and link to the original version
           | on my site. Also, some people have the habit of sending links
           | to interesting texts (or what they deem to be interesting)
           | around by e-mail.
           | 
           | There are many spontaneous undercurrents in the pond of the
           | Internet. It is also the reason why fake news are so hard to
           | root out.
        
             | echoradio wrote:
             | Thank you! This is actually very helpful to know. I've been
             | talking with someone about using a Creative Commons model
             | for sharing content to gain attention/traffic, but I wasn't
             | sure if it worked in the wild.
        
       | _rpd wrote:
       | > "If we had remained on Facebook, we might have had another 5%
       | growth,"
        
         | james-skemp wrote:
         | You may have accidentally submitted too quickly.
         | 
         | As it is, this quote is a little misleading. Additional context
         | from the article:
         | 
         | > "If we had remained on Facebook, we might have had another 5%
         | growth," she said. "But even if we throttled our growth ...
         | it's brought us a lot of positives."
         | 
         | > Donations from readers went up, for example, once word of
         | Stuff's decision leaked out. Boucher said the company's
         | newsrooms felt the impact, too.
         | 
         | > "We can definitely see a change in the way people react to us
         | and talk to us" she said. "Hearing anecdotally from
         | journalists, they feel like they've been able to get interviews
         | they would not have got before. They feel that it has really
         | has contributed to people trusting us more, thinking about us
         | as an organization with a clear set of values."
         | 
         | Based on the rest of article, sounds like they value being a
         | trusted source more then getting more eyes. Given that Facebook
         | and the like are a firehose of truths and lies, I wish more
         | news sources would take this stance. (And do deep dives.)
        
       | bozzcl wrote:
       | >But Boucher says her experience suggests publishers should
       | prioritize a different relationship: the direct one they have
       | with their audience.
       | 
       | I feel there's quite a bit to unpack here. Social media was sold
       | to us as being a way to engage your users more closely... yet it
       | seems the opposite is true.
        
       | pasttense01 wrote:
       | "Last year, in the middle of the pandemic, Sinead Boucher offered
       | $1 to buy Stuff, New Zealand's largest news publisher... The punt
       | worked. The Australian company accepted the offer of 1 New
       | Zealand dollar, worth about 70 U.S. cents."
       | 
       | Explanation? You expect that the economy will eventually recover
       | --so why essentially give the company away? [The only thing which
       | comes to mind is a very heavy debt load which the new owner
       | assumes.]
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-02 23:02 UTC)