NPR Says That Leaving X Had Minor Impact on Referral Traffic
This is probably not a great signal for Elon Musk’s evolving X project.
Back in April, both NPR and PBS announced that they would stop using Twitter/X as a means to connect with their respective audiences, due to X’s decision to add a  “Government-funded media” tag to their accounts. Both publishers viewed this as an attempt to discredit their reporting, and sow distrust in traditional media, so rather than continue to participate under those conditions, they opted to abandon the platform, and give more priority to other outlets.
Which is a risky move, given that X plays a key role in news dissemination online. That’s particularly true among journalists, with many reporters using X to stay up to date on breaking news, which means that original reporting can often benefit from the referral traffic and amplification that X can bring.