Economist publishing stories on Japanese messaging app Line

The Economist is now posting stories on the Japanese messaging app Line, reports Lucinda Southern of Digiday.

Southern writes, “The Economist is not the first publisher on Line. Both the BBC and The Wall Street Journal have set up shop on the messaging app. Line, which was created in Japan and spread to other Asian markets, boasts 212 million monthly users.

“The Economist plans to post between four and six pieces of content a day on the homepage, compared to 25 a day that goes to Facebook, and two pieces a week in the push notification channel.

“‘Line offers an interesting audience that we don’t have access to,’ explained Denise Law, deputy community editor at the Economist. ‘There’s a universe of younger readers particularly in Asia and the U.S. that wouldn’t know to go to Economist.com, so we go to them.’

“The content is in English and can be accessed from U.S., Canada, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Korea, Hong Kong, UK, Cambodia, and Pakistan. Users need to follow The Economist. The publication will promote its account through its various social channels. It currently has 6.3 million likes on Facebook and 12.5 million followers on Twitter.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.