紐時賞析／新聞網站流量大幅下滑 媒體轉戰WhatsApp追尋讀者

一幅插圖顯示，一名男子坐在一張綠色椅子上，讀著名爲「世界新聞」的報紙，同時看着後面的手機。（紐約時報）

Spurned by Social Media, Publishers Chase Readers on WhatsApp

不受社羣青睞 媒體轉往WhatsApp追尋讀者

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.

許多數位新聞出版商一直在拚命尋找救生艇。新聞網站流量已大幅下滑，連同這些點擊帶來的廣告收入，部分原因是谷歌與臉書決定，讓新聞在他們的平臺上不那麼顯眼。

Now, some publications have found a glimmer of hope elsewhere: WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app.

現在一些出版商已在別處找到一線希望：WhatsApp，全世界最受歡迎的即時通訊應用程式。

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.

去年下半年，這款應用程式推出了WhatsApp頻道，這是一種單向廣播系統，允許出版商直接向跟隨者推送連結與標題。許多媒體正在使用這個功能，作爲一種吸引讀者的方式，並且跟主要是在美國以外的受衆建立直接關係。

“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.

Telemundo新聞部門、Noticias Telemundo的數位新聞資深主管瑪塔．普拉內爾斯說，「它實際上已成爲一個巨大的流量來源，比X更大」。

The Noticias Telemundo channel on WhatsApp gained more than 30,000 followers in just the first two weeks and now has more than 820,000 followers, Planells said.

普拉內爾斯說，Noticias Telemundo在WhatsApp的頻道推出前兩週，就得到超過3萬名跟隨者，目前擁有超過82萬名跟隨者。

The traffic created by WhatsApp still pales in comparison with what Google and Facebook send to publications. And some publishers are cautious about getting too enamored by Channels.

跟谷歌和臉書送至出版商的流量相比，WhatsApp產生的流量仍相形見絀。有些出版商對過度迷戀WhatsApp頻道抱持謹慎態度。

But Channels is one of the few sources of traffic trending upward, and is part of a push by many publishers to develop direct relationships with audiences and, potentially, drive them back to outlets’ home pages or apps, rather than rely on the social media platforms.

但頻道是少數流量呈上升趨勢的來源之一，也是許多出版商努力跟受衆建立直接關係的一部分，而且，有可能推動他們回到媒體的首頁或應用程式，而不是依靠社羣媒體平臺。

Numerous media outlets have signed up for WhatsApp Channels and already drawn millions of followers, including CNN (14.5 million followers), The New York Times (14 million), BBC News (9.3 million), The New York Post (8.1 million), The Wall Street Journal (4.7 million) and The Washington Post (3.8 million).

許多媒體機構已加入WhatsApp頻道，並且吸引數以百萬計跟隨者，包括CNN（1450萬跟隨者）、紐約時報（1400萬）、BBC新聞（930萬）、紐約郵報（810萬）、華爾街日報（470萬）與華盛頓郵報（380萬）。

The Atlantic is viewing its WhatsApp Channel, which has 2.8 million followers, as a place of experimentation rather than a major source of traffic, said Adrienne LaFrance, the publication’s executive editor.

「大西洋月刊」總編輯艾德麗安．拉法蘭斯表示，該刊將擁有280萬跟隨者的旗下WhatsApp頻道視爲一個實驗地點，而不是主要流量來源。

“The social web is undergoing this dramatic change, and that can be unnerving, but it also, even more than that, means huge opportunities for journalists to connect to audiences in new ways,” she said.

她說，「社羣網路正經歷這個戲劇性變化，可能令人不安，但不止如此，也意味記者以新方式連接受衆的巨大機會」。

文／Katie Robertson and Mike Isaac　譯／周辰陽