Bloomberg News to use Telegram to build audience outside U.S.

Bloomberg News is attempting to make use of messaging app Telegram to draw new subscribers and build an audience outside the U.S., according to Digiday.,

As of now, Bloomberg sends out at least one or two messages to the more than 27,000 subscribers to its account on Telegram. News editors craft the messages, and often stud them with emojis, to read more like a short newsletter.

These stories range from breaking business news pieces to in-depth features on major tech companies and cultural pieces.

The move to Telegram came after WhatsApp enacted a ban on bulk and automated messaging, thereby preventing Bloomberg from messaging its thousands of WhatsApp followers.

“For us, the biggest benefit was the one-on-one relationship that we created with these users,” Katie Boyce, Bloomberg’s digital managing editor said. “Right now, media organizations are utilizing newsletters for that, but there’s more noise in your inbox than there used to be.” She noted, “Our readers were using dark social [media channels] to share content with friends and family so we wanted to meet them there and create a more direct relationship by sending daily conversational messages that were written by our editors and not an algorithm.”

As of now, Telegram is not on the radar of many publishers.

Boyce concluded that as of now, it is too soon or Bloomberg News to measure its success on Telegram. Using these messaging apps really works for our business as a global media brand,” she said. “For us, this audience is important to engage and to reach in order to grow our audience and our subscriptions.”