Push notifications sent to a curated, targeted audience using our automated notifications consistently see about a 2-3× lift in engagement compared to manual pushes sent to the full audience.

This is because automated notifications go to a high-intent audience—subscribers who have recently:

• Opened the app
• Read multiple stories in the same section
• Engaged with similar topics or tags

These users want more of this type of content.

By contrast, manual notifications reach everyone, including:

• Users who haven’t opened the app recently
• Users with low or no interest in the topic
• Users who are more likely to ignore the alert

In our data:

• Automated pushes see ~8% engagement
• Manual pushes see ~3% engagement

Opt-outs and uninstalls are rare for both, so the main takeaway is:

• Sending manual notifications to all subscribers should be used sparingly and intentionally.

Send more relevant alerts that our audience appreciate and open.

This guide explains when to send notifications to your entire audience and how to write strong push Titles and Messages.

Manual notifications are powerfulbut because it bypasses behavioral targeting, it can easily lead to low engagement and frustration when used casually.

Use manual notifications only when the story is truly urgentandhighly relevant to almost everyone in your market.

Use manual notifications for rare, high-impact stories that affect most people:

• Major breaking news happeningright now
• Severe, life-safety weather (tornado, flash flooding, evacuation order)
• Major public safety emergencies
• Amber Alerts
• Major civic outcomes (big election calls, significant verdicts, large protests)

If casual users would say, I needed to know this immediately, its likely appropriate for a manual push.

Use a manual notification only if the story is truly big enough or local enough:

• High-impact enterprise stories
• Significant local government actions
• Local sports with widespread interest
• Investigations that meaningfully impact peoples lives
• Community disruptions (major highway closures, school system-wide impacts)

If the natural audience ispeople who already care about this topic,trust the automated notification to reach the right subscribers.

These topics consistently underperform and often annoy when blasted broadly:

• Routine crime
• Minor incidents
• Soft features (feel-good, holiday recipes, listicles)
• Promotional pushes (Watch live, Tap to read, Open the app)
• National politics or culture-war stories without strong local impact
• Anything sent late at night that isnt safety-related

If an automated notification can reach the right people, let it.

Best Local Send Times

• Morning: 7–10am
  Weather, traffic, school updates, overnight developments
• Midday: 11am–2pm
  Crime, civic news, investigations, enterprise pieces
• Evening: 6–8pm
  The single strongest window—breaking news, sports finals, political outcomes

Automated pushes perform well throughout these windows.

Avoid Sending Manual Notifications Unless Urgent

• Before 7am
• After 9pm
• Overnight (10pm–6am)

Pushes sent in “dead hours” get low engagement and risk irritating less-engaged users.

If it can wait until morning or early evening, it should.

Every push has two parts:

• Title → sets category + urgency
• Message → delivers the actual news (the headline)

Both matter, but they serve different purposes.

Writing a Good Title (the hook)

The Title sets users’ expectations at a glance. It should be extremely short and tell the user what type of news this is.

What a good Title does

• Tells the user what kind of alert this is
• Signals urgency when appropriate
• Gives context quickly

Best Title formats

 Category-based Titles (safe for most stories):

• “Local News”
• “Breaking News”
• “Weather Alert”
• “Traffic Alert”
• “Sports News”
• “Amber Alert”

 Urgent Titles (use only when accurate):

• “Tornado Warning”
• “Flash Flood Warning”
• “Evacuation Order”
• “Shelter in Place”

Title best practices

• Use 1–5 words
• Make the “type” obvious (Local, Breaking, Weather, Traffic, Sports)
• Let the Message do the storytelling

Title pitfalls

Avoid Titles like:

• “Tap to watch now”
• “You won’t believe…”
• “Latest update”
• “Check this out”

These reduce clarity and correlate with low engagement. When in doubt, choose a simple category Title.

The Message is where you earn the tap. It should tell people what actually happened in one short line.

Lead with the outcome, not the process

Outcome-first messages perform 3.5× better than promo-style lines.

Example:

• “Crash shuts down northbound I-5 near Everett”
  → ~10–12% opens
• “Watch our live coverage of I-5 backup”
  → ~2–3% opens

Write the Message as a brief, factual headline, not a trailer for your story.

Use specific, local details

Local detail = relevance = taps.

Include:

• Roads/highways (I-35, I-84, US-183)
• Cities/counties/neighborhoods
• Landmarks (airport, city hall, stadium)
• People involved (age, role)

Pushes with local identifiers get 1.5×–2× higher engagement.

Use strong, accurate verbs

Data shows higher engagement for verbs like:

• “closes”, “shuts down”, “damages”, “destroys”
• “warns”, “threatens”, “evacuate”
• “searching”, “missing”, “arrested”, “charged”
• “votes to…”

This language communicates consequence and urgency—when accurate.

Keep it short and scannable

Length has a big impact:

• Short + medium messages perform normally or above average
• Very long messages show a ~45% drop in engagement

Aim for 8–14 words (one sentence you can read in one breath).

Ask yourself: “If I saw this on my lock screen for half a second, would I understand it?”

If not, trim.

Avoid promo or CTA language

Words that consistently suppress engagement:

• tap  Avg open rate: ~3.5% (Drop: 61%)
• read  Avg open rate: ~3.3% (Drop: 63%)
• app  Avg open rate: ~3.4% (Drop: 62%)
• celebrate  Avg open rate: ~3.4% (Drop: 62%)
• cooking  Avg open rate: ~3.5% (Drop: 61%)

These push the user away from the news and toward marketingand our data clearly shows they perform very poorly.

Topics that tend to feel ideological, polarizing, or national-in-scope can cause spikes in opt-outs or long-term disengagement.

Words correlated with higher opt-out rates:

• immigration  Avg opt-out rate: 0.83% (Lift vs baseline (0.27%): +207%)
• deployment  Avg opt-out rate: 0.84% (Lift vs baseline (0.27%): +211%)
• agents  Avg opt-out rate: 0.95% (Lift vs baseline (0.27%): +251%)
• church  Avg opt-out rate: 0.83% (Lift vs baseline (0.27%): +205%)
• gov  Avg opt-out rate: 0.54% (Lift vs baseline (0.27%): +100%)
• ukraine  Avg opt-out rate: 0.55% (Lift vs baseline (0.27%): +104%)

What this means for producers:

• These stories should almost always go"Likely Interested", unless the impact is undeniably local and urgent.
• When you do push them:
  • Tie them directly tolocal relevance
  • Avoid broad All blasts
  • Keep tone factual and specific

✅ High-performing examples

• “Tornado Warning for Union County until 5pm”
  → 16–20%+ opens
• “Crash on I-5 south blocks all lanes near Tacoma”
  → 12–14% opens
• “Police searching for missing 12-year-old in Asheville”
  → 10–12% opens
• “City council votes to ban short-term rentals downtown”
  → 10–13% opens

❌ Low-performing examples

• “Watch our live coverage of the storm system”
  → 2–3% opens
• “Tap to see the best holiday cooking ideas”
  → 3–3.5% opens
• “Here’s what you need to know about immigration today”
  → Weak CTR + 2–3× higher opt-outs
• “Celebrate National Rural Health Day with us!”
  → ~3.4%, down ~62%

Push alerts are not marketingthey are a public service. Our audience expects:

• Accuracy
• Local relevance
• Clarity
• Respect for their attention

If you:

• Use manual notifications sparingly
• Trust  automated messages to reach the right audience
• Write clear, direct, outcome-first messages
• Use specific, local details
• Avoid promo language

you will increase engagement, reduce frustration, and strengthen your relationship with your audience.