7 things I learned about WhatsApp journalism
How we used voice messages and WhatsApp status to reach a young audience and why we sometimes felt like outlaws

In June 2017, my team and I at Axel Springer Akademie developed an new format on WhatsApp for young people. With “shotty“, we launched a news and politics channel for first-time voters in the upcoming general election.
Our goal was to create content about politics that really matters to our audience and distribute it via their favorite app, WhatsApp, which 94% of young Germans favor over other social media apps.
These are the seven take-aways from our project:
1. WhatsApp is still the Wild West among Social Media Apps
Even for big publishing houses, WhatsApp is still uncharted territory, characterized by legal uncertainty. So far, only a few pioneers like Daniel Fiene’s Team at Rheinische Post have experimented with the App.
On the one hand, this makes it even more attractive for publishers, because looking ahead, there could be a great gold rush we would gain heavily from. On WhatsApp, you are a pioneer with almost no competition. On the other hand, you risk being blocked by WhatsApp at any time. From what we know, it does not allow the commercial use of the app.
From the very beginning, we decided not to use chatbots like “WhatsBroadcast“, since it doesn’t support features like the WhatsApp Status and voice messages. We managed our community by hand, which meant that we also spend a lot of time adding and deleting contacts. Despite our diligent community management, we missed a few users’ registrations, which a few of them complained about, but most people put up with it.
2. Asking for cell phone numbers is easier than asking for it at the bar
As part of Axel Springers think tank, we were okay with the risk of being blocked by WhatsApp. We were much more concerned about our potential audience. Would they even give us their number? Most people usually hesitate to give away their cell phone numbers to strangers, whether it’s the guy at the bar or a sales agent. Adding to that, concerns about privacy and the use of personal data are very strong in Germany.
However, we didn’t need to worry at all. Within the first three days, more than 2000 people registered for “shotty“.
This was surprising to us, given that we spent very little time and money on advertising it. Even the BBC had heard of our project.
3. No pictures, please
Memory space is sacred. Every image and video you send out will occupy a lot of space on your user’s phone, giving them a reason to cancel their WhatsApp subscription. Furthermore, images that are newsworthy seem like spam in your gallery. Most people don’t want pictures of Angela Merkel stashed between your holiday pictures from last summer.
Sending images only makes sense if it is a service to your audience. For example, if your images are sharable like a postcard, users are going to want to send it to their friends. That’s why we decided to send out a daily GIF that corresponds with our topic of the day.
4. Voice Messages are the new Podcasts
Besides a daily GIF and a news digest every evening we sent out a voice message with the most important news every morning. We designed the voice recordings in a way that is different to your normal radio show, making it more similar to your friends’ messages: one host, with a personal opinion and a maximum of three minutes long.
We were unsure if our personal approach would feel like an intrusion in the “friend zone” WhatsApp provides. However, the feedback from our community was positive. Most people told us that they are too lazy to read the news in the morning. Therefore, listening to news via WhatsApp would fit perfectly in their daily routine. The experience from our focus group of high school students was similar: They listened to shotty while brushing their teeth or on their daily commute to school.
Although successful in the positive feedback, we were not able to track how many of our users actually listened to the voice messages, given the limited analysis tools of WhatsApp.
5. WhatsApp Status can keep up with Snapchat and Instagram Stories
WhatsApp introduced its new “Status” in April 2017. Similar to Snapchat, it allows you to post pictures and 30-seconds videos that are strung together to form a story and then deleted after 24 hours.
So far, no one really knows how many people actually use Status. With shotty, we were one of the first media companies worldwide to experiment with this new feature. From our personal experience with WhatsApp, we witnessed that almost nobody from our age group (20–30 years old) uses Status. That’s why we expected there to be a lower number of people using WhatsApp Statuses compared to Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Interestingly enough, that’s why we were pretty surprised by our actual numbers:
Between 40 and 50 percent of shotty’s 2,000 subscribers tuned in to our Status stories. Among our five WhatsApp live reports, the story on Sexting was the most popular. Almost all users that tuned in watched it until the end (95 percent). The other reports on radicalization of young Muslims, the UK election, a day without plastic and what to do after your graduation had an average click-through rate of 65,5 percent.
On the other hand, it was also pretty interesting so see what our audience posted to their Status. Among our community, it seemed like most 11–18 year olds used this new feature. Primarily, they posted selfies with friends and questionnaires (e.g. 1. Do you like me? 2. Do you think I’m pretty? Etc.).
6. Love your community and they will pay you back
With shotty, we wanted to create an interactive format that differs from your ordinary newsletter. Our motto: We always respond to your texts! This approach earned us a high engagement and a lot of User Generated Content.
Our interactive style also created a strong bond to our community. Some shotty users sent us their own fan art or shared us in their own WhatsApp Status. Others responded to our news updates with “Thank You”, “Keep up the good work” or “How are you?”.
7. Love is in the Air
The feedback on WhatsApp was largely constructive, apart from one troll. Due to WhatsApp being a closed network, it does not provide a public platform for hate speech. Therefore, it is not very appealing for trolls and haters. As a consequence, people were more willing to ask questions or respond to research questions than give negative feedback.
About our WhatsApp project “shotty”
“How are politics relevant to me?” This is a question that many young people ask themselves, tired of news they cannot relate to. With shotty, we wanted to answer this question and create content that really matters to our audience. Our format was designed to inform and entertain, featuring a News-Voice Message every morning, a news digest in the evening and a daily live report via WhatsApp Status.
The name “shotty” is inspired by a shot of alcohol, which comes in small amounts and goes right to your brain. Our project ran from June 5th to June 9th 2017 on WhatsApp. Shotty was developed by Team 21 of Axel Springer’s journalism school Axel Springer Akademie.
