The Financial Times has closed a Whatsapp group through which it shared one free markets story per day with individuals who had signed up.
Freddy Mayhew of The Press Gazette writes, “A message sent to the group this week read: ‘Unfortunately this group will soon close. Thank you for following us and we hope you’ll continue to read our markets stories via other platforms.’
“The FT said a change in policy at the mobile messaging app, which is owned by Facebook, was behind the decision and that it had otherwise been a ‘huge success’ and would not have been closed.
“It claims the audience had nearly tripled in just over a year, since it publicised the service last summer, and with a ‘high volume of valuable traffic’ being sent to the FT’s website.”
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