Why NewsWhip is the best CrowdTangle alternative

January 20, 2023

Written by Benedict Nicholson

CrowdTangle is an invaluable tool for journalists and fact checkers around the world and especially in the fight against misinformation.

With it now being officially discontinued, we’ve had a number of publishers and NGO’s reach out to see how NewsWhip could be an alternative. While there is no like-for-like CrowdTangle replacement we do offer many of the same features, as well as a couple of added extras that make us stand out as the best alternative.

Here’s what you can expect from NewsWhip: 

Predictive data and alerts 

NewsWhip’s predictive alerts are unique in the market, and help users get ahead of any trending story by being able to predict the level of engagement a story is going to receive hours before it actually reaches those numbers. You can set up these alerts to be informed of spikes in engagement without even having to log into the platform.

This allows journalists and editors to jump on pre-viral trends, or promote their own stories that they can see are already finding resonance.


Research dashboard illustration

Real-time content discovery 

NewsWhip Spike is also the fastest platform on the market to identify content of interest as soon as it hits the internet. We do it within minutes, others take hours.  This gives you a real-time view into how the public and media are reacting to content and stories. 

This is particularly useful for spotting trends, as Condé Nast Italia’s Roberta Cianetti explained

“It is an extremely flexible tool which allows editors, social and audience managers to create their own dashboards combining real time feeds of social & web content with public engagement data as well as structuring specific news alerts on peaking events expanding this knowledge further to the entire team in their inbox. It is surely an ally in speeding up some of the daily work in a much more efficient way, being hyper-connected to real-time data.”

 

Cross-platform analysis

With NewsWhip, you have access to a wide range of platforms, including web coverage, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube.

Each of these platforms is its own unique ecosystem, and while there can be similarities, the differences are often noteworthy. Truly viral stories are likely to trend on every platform, but it’s not unusual for some niche stories to have far more success on one than another, so it’s crucial to have a 360 view of the social web to make sure you’re optimizing your content strategy and research. 

Reach’s Yara Silva extolled the virtues of this cross-platform approach. “It has probably the best Twitter insights that I’ve come across,” she said. “The Reddit function is incredibly useful for finding stories because you can find stuff on there that hasn’t been written about yet.”

Tools to fight misinformation 

NewsWhip has been used by researchers and fact checkers for years to combat the rising tide of misinformation. The platform helps our users understand past misinformation efforts through our research dashboards, as well as prioritizing where to focus on fact checking efforts when speed is crucial.

Amil Khan, director of Valent Projects explained how crucial it is to understand what’s trending, and why NewsWhip is a part of their plans to build a new tool in the future.

Easy transition to NewsWhip Spike 

Last but not least, we have a dedicated Customer Success team who make it easier than ever to recreate your CrowdTangle searches in by downloading your lists and uploading them to NewsWhip. If you’re already a NewsWhip customer, reach out to your contact and we can get the process started.

See NewsWhip in action and book your demo today.

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Benedict Nicholson

Benedict is the Director of Content at NewsWhip, where he focuses on researching trends about how news spreads in the online ecosystem. Email Benedict via benedict.nicholson@newswhip.com.

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