The end is nigh for Storify users – here’s how to save your content

The holiday season and well-intended New Year’s resolutions are already just a distant memory. But digital storytellers are still digesting the news that Storify will be shutting down its services in a few months time. Creatives and journalists who carefully curated their content to showcase their portfolio must now face up the fact their work is now marked for deletion on the Storify platform.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed stories to our Storify community. Unfortunately, we are no longer allowing new users to sign up and will end existing users’ access to Storify.com on May 16, 2018.

The once must-have tool for journalists that embraced the social web had experienced a dramatic fall from grace. In 2013, the company was acquired by Livefyre. But a few years later Adobe purchased Livefyre, and the rest is history. The closure offers a timely reminder around using commercial platforms for digital archiving.

A quick search on Twitter reveals panic-stricken Storify users looking for an easy way to move their content to a new home before years of work disappears forever. However, the team at content curation platform Wakelet are turning these challenges into an opportunity.

Wakelet has created an easy tool for users to import all of their Storify stories onto their platform. Essentially, the get out of jail free card for displaced Storify users will help users save their content from deletion in a bid to tempt a new audience onto their platform. In addition to the import tool, the team also have new updates in the pipeline such as the bulk adding of tweets, adding content by hashtag, and a slick embed design,

Misbah Gedal , Head of Marketing at Wakelet advised “With Storify closing its doors, we want to offer their users a powerful alternative that will help them curate faster and easier than before, in any way they want. By exporting their Storify links to Wakelet, they can pick up right where they left off”

Founder Jamil Khalil created Wakelet, based in Manchester, as a response to the disorganization of the web – a web that favors disjointed chunks of information over human curated stories. Journalists wanting to make their voice heard above the white noise are increasingly adopting the platform to collect, organize and showcase their work in one place.

Equally, consumers of content are finding a variety of uses for the Waklet platform. From sharing a collection of President Trumps worst tweets to learning from the wisdom of Noam Chomsky or even researching topics like the issue of food waste. But, do you really need it?

Services such as Wakelet will always divide the online community. While many will question the relevance of inviting yet another content curation platform into their life, digital raconteurs are desperately looking for a way to showcase their work in an informative and aesthetically pleasing way.

However, the reality is that we are all online creators and share links through email, SMS, WhatsApp and social media daily. But, is a series of links underlined in blue text where we have to keep drifting between browser and app or email client starting to feel dated? How you answer that question, will determine if Wakelet is for you or not.