Reach (then Trinity Mirror) has been using Instant Articles since its launch in 2016 but wanted to verify how useful they were compared to click-throughs going straight to its own websites or apps. Reach head of social media and engagement Dan Russell said: “It was clear from the Liverpool Echo experiment that our readers prefer the Instant Articles. Up until this point we simply didn’t know and although there was speculation we needed solid evidence to inform future decisions.” Russell described it as a “business-defining conclusion” that “shaped our Facebook strategy” across the rest of Reach’s regional titles. [ Russell added that the strategy now has “real value for us in terms of increased reach, newsletter subscriptions and audience conversions”.