By Israel Perez
When it comes to Twitter followers of Mexican newspapers, El Universal is the top bird with nearly half a million followers. Coming in at a distant second and third are Milenio and Reforma, with 148,077 and 101,567 followers, respectively.
El Universal's number of Twitter followers is higher than its print circulation.
The top 20 newspapers, measured by web ranking, use Twitter primarily as a headline feed, and tweet breaking news and events. El Universal also uses Twitter to get readers involved in its online discussion forums.
Surprisingly, of the top 20, only El Universal has a verified account. Twitter establishes authenticity of well-known accounts so users can trust that a legitimate news source is authoring their Tweets. However, most of the newspapers' websites feature a prominent link to their Twitter accounts on their homepage.
Here’s how the top 20 Mexican newspapers stacked up on Feb. 2 when ranked by the number of Twitter followers:
1. @el_universal_mx — 480,157 followers
2. @milenio — 147,019 followers
3. @reformacom — 101,447 followers
4. @lajornadaonline — 56,274 followers
5. @excelsior_mex — 35,197 followers
6. @elnortecom — 28,782 followers
7. @proceso — 18,575 followers
8. @diariodeyucatan — 10,383 followers
9. @informador — 10,359 followers
10. @eleconomista — 9,034 followers
11. @financierolinea — 8,032 followers
12. @lacronicadehoy — 6,635 followers
13. @estoenlinea — 6,093 followers
14. @torreon — 5,453 followers
15. @elimparcialcom — 3,839 followers
16. @periodicozocalo — 3,688 followers
17. @noroestemx — 3,576 followers
18. @eldebate — 3,031 followers
19. @oemenlinea — 2,846 followers
20. @fronterainfo — 1,526 followers
UPDATE: This survey examines only the top 20 Mexican newspapers “by Web ranking”, listed by the site “4International Media & Newspapers.” The 4IMN site measures the volume of newspapers' Web traffic based on Google PageRank, Yahoo Inbound Links and Alexa. There are other newspapers in Mexico that have a significant number of Twitter followers but were not mentioned because they were not in 4IMN’s Top 20 Newspapers ranking. It is the case, for example, of sports newspaper Récord (@record_mexico) that has more than 90,000 followers, and the newspaper Vanguardia, from Saltillo, Coahuila, with almost 7,000 followers (@vanguardiamx).
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
