Leadership Aversion? Encounter Twitter’s Link Diminishment of Texts When Tied to The New York Times

NewsWhip provides social media usage statistics, tracking over 300,000 Twitter/X accounts. They have discovered that sharing news links from The New York Times, a media outlet disliked by many leaders, can have a significant impact on the reach and engagement of those posts.

For instance, a well-known figure like Barack Obama shares an article from The New York Times and garners approximately 800,000 to 900,000 impressions. In comparison, when Obama shares an article from Politico, the number of impressions increases to 13 million.

This change began in July 2023. It follows the discovery that clicking on links from The New York Times or competitor websites, such as Threads, results in a 5-second delay. Interestingly, this reduction in reach does not affect other major media outlets like the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Politico. However, both Twitter/X and The New York Times have yet to address this issue publicly.

TLDR: NewsWhip’s data reveals that sharing news links from The New York Times can significantly impact the reach and engagement of posts. This change, implemented since July 2023, leads to a 5-second delay when clicking on such links. Notably, other major media outlets are unaffected by this issue.