In July, Threads made history by becoming one of the fastest-growing products in tech. Meta’s text-based platform, widely seen as a competitor to X / Twitter, was well-positioned for growth thanks to its parent company’s extensive expertise with social networks like Facebook and Instagram and because of X’s decline.

 Threads saw massive early adoption, surpassing 1 million registered users within the first hour of launch. That momentum continued as it reached 70 million users after two days and 100 million users within four days.

Usage growth quickly plateaued according to SimilarWeb data. By one month post-launch, app sessions were down 79% compared to launch week highs. Declines in new registrations and monthly active usage raised speculation about Threads’ longevity, and the platform stopped making headlines.

Yet, there are reasons to believe that Threads is a promising platform in the longer term. In October Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the app had maintained “just under” 100 million monthly users since its July debut. X’s decline under Elon Musk’s leadership continues manifesting in declining usage and advertisers fleeing following the owner’s antisemitic comments.

Threads is still not officially available in the European Union because of Meta’s worries about upcoming tech regulations. When this changes, the platform’s popularity in Europe might grow, with more news publishers building a presence on Threads.

In the meanwhile, we looked at what top news publishers are present on Threads, how many followers they have and how active they are.

English-language publishers

The data was updated on November 21, 2023

OutletFollowers on ThreadsFollowers on XFrequency of posting
The New York Times2.3 million55.1 millionMultiple times a day
CNN2.2 million61.9 millionMultiple times a day
The Washington Post1.1 million20 millionMultiple times a day
The Wall Street Journal721,00020.6 millionMultiple times a day
NBC News532,0009.4 millionLast post a few weeks ago
Politico495,0004.6 millionMultiple times a day
Fox News432,00024.2 millionNo posts
The Atlantic426,0002 millionMultiple times a day
The Guardian791,00010.9 millionMultiple times a day
BBC720,0002.2 millionNo posts since first weeks of launch
Forbes823,00019.6 millionMultiple times a day
Bloomberg Business706,0009.3 millionMultiple times a day
The Economist863,00027.1 millionLast post days ago
Time1.1 million19.3 millionLast post days ago
Vice580,0001.9 millionMultiple times a day
The New Yorker949,0008.8 millionMultiple times a day

European non-English outlets

OutletFollowers on ThreadsFollowers on XFrequency of posting
Deutsche Welle94,500178,300Last post a few weeks ago
France2480,2005 millionNo posts
Le Monde72,00010.7 millionNo posts since first week of launch
Euronews44,200573,600No posts since first week of launch
Der Spiegel13,2003.1 millionNo posts

The upshot

The strategies employed by publishers on Threads have differed notably. Some outlets have clearly made concerted efforts to establish a presence and regularly engage their follower bases through posting. However, other once-active accounts have seemingly pulled back from the platform within days of registering, in some cases rather abruptly despite achieving sizable audiences.

The level of hope that publishers have for Threads at this stage remains unclear, although most major outlets have maintained a consistent presence on the platform with daily posts. At the same time, we have not observed publishers adopting notably different formatting strategies on Threads compared to X. But with Meta’s readiness to tweak algorithms, this may come to light with time.

Source of the cover photo: https://unsplash.com


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