This is probably not the best omen for the evolving X project that Elon Musk has on his hands.

Last April, NPR and PBS announced that they would no longer use Twitter/X to reach their respective audiences because they feel X had tagged its accounts with "Government-funded media.". Both publishers considered this step a means to vilify reporting and to spread distrust toward traditional media, so they did not continue on the platform while things were this way. They chose to withdraw from this platform to devote more attention to other channels.

That's a pretty dangerous play in that X plays an important role in the way information is distributed on-line. That is particularly true among journalists, where many reporters follow X to stay up to date on breaking news, so this original reporting will often get referral traffic and amplification that comes along with that help.

Though, of course, no difference is really that distinct. A new report from Nieman Lab says that NPR hasn't experienced any significant effects after deciding to cut X's programming.
NL:

"A memo circulated to NPR staff says traffic has dropped by only a single percentage point as a result of leaving X, though traffic from the platform was small already and accounted for just under two percent of traffic before the posting stopped."

Which is true for most publishers: X/Twitter has never been a great source of referral traffic. But the fact that NPR, which had over 8.7 million followers in the app, was able to leave with such minor consequences in this respect will no doubt raise many other publications' eyebrows.

Though there is likely more to it.

As discussed, X/Twitter has never been a major referral driver for most websites, and Digiday reported back in January that referrals from the app actually dipped by another 20% on average in 2022.

Despite this, the platform still wields strong influence through broader exposure and connection to key trends.

For example, many news hounds stay up to date on X, then re-distribute that information out to other platforms, or use it in their own reporting. So in this sense, X may be far more influential than the raw numbers alone would suggest.

While NPR did make another interesting observation, too.

In comparison, NPR has been trying out Threads, where NPR is one of the most-followed news accounts on it. Threads brings in around 63,000 site visits a week -- a bit fewer than 39% of what Twitter brought in.

Threads, which is barely 3 months old with around 25% of X's current active users, is already bringing in nearly half the amount of referral traffic that X was for NPR.

That, of course, bodes well for Meta's X rival, still mostly in development and lacking many features that have kept people attached to X instead.
Again, these kinds of insights will make more publishers' eyes wander, especially as Elon continues to attack "mainstream media" outlets in hopes of sulllying their reporting, and send users off to the sources that he prefers.

And, apparently the main motive for the attacks on Musk, in targeting which outlets have written negative things about him, or companies of his by criticizing all their coverage and tarring their name among his millions of fans.

Indeed, in the last few months alone, Musk has launched verbal volleys against The New York Times, Reuters, The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, and Rolling Stone, among others. And those are only the latest, truth be told, anyone who reports anything that's not to his liking or doesn't share his view, gets thrown into his "fake news" basket, which he duly airs out as he regularly does through his X posts.

Which is pulling more publications and journalists away from X, though many are loathe to actually leave the platform, lest they become even further disconnected from the latest trending news stories and coverage.

X is embedded into the distribution process for most publications, and it would be a huge shift for them to back away completely. But more are indeed giving it serious consideration.

The NPR example might be just the nudge some need, and as X becomes an ever bigger purveyor of misinformation, because it amplifies paying users over all others, it is increasingly losing its value as the go-to trend source.

If Threads can deliver even half of the traffic, that will get publishers thinking, which could become a really big problem for Elon Musk's app.