...
But to all the editors and reporters reading this column, I’m only going to
say this once—it’s not cool, and actually detrimental to your job, to ignore
Twitter.
According to a now-famous innovation report from the New York Times, the
company has struggled getting all of its journalists to board this “new
media” train and embrace digital change. It specifically mentioned the
importance of Twitter to the digital future of the Times no less than 18
times. Buzzfeed had a little fun with the Times’ staff, taking readers on a
tour of some of the abandoned accounts its staffers launched that have since been abandoned, a “graveyard of egg profiles.”
Nowhere is this disconnect more apparent than in the newsroom’s leader, executive editor Dean Baquet, who joined Twitter back in September 2011, has more than 11,000 followers, yet has only composed a grand total of two tweets.
While most professional journalists see the obvious benefits of Twitter, high-profile holdouts like Baquet have their defenders. After all, Twitter can be an obvious distraction to reporters on deadline, and with so many social networks out there (have you gotten an invite yet from Ello?), is 8-year-old Twitter even that sexy anymore? As Matt McFarland over at the Washington Post noted, Buzzfeed actually gets more traffic from Pinterest than Twitter, and no one is complaining about Baquet’s lack of pinned recipes.
So should it really be a requirement, in today’s digital environment, for reporters and editors to be on Twitter? Yes, according to Steve Buttry, formerly the digital transformation editor for Digital First Media, now Lamar Visiting Scholar at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, Buttry called out Baquet in a blog post, making the case that journalists that choose not to be active on Twitter “choose to remain or fall behind.”
company has struggled getting all of its journalists to board this “new
media” train and embrace digital change. It specifically mentioned the
importance of Twitter to the digital future of the Times no less than 18
times. Buzzfeed had a little fun with the Times’ staff, taking readers on a
tour of some of the abandoned accounts its staffers launched that have since been abandoned, a “graveyard of egg profiles.”
Nowhere is this disconnect more apparent than in the newsroom’s leader, executive editor Dean Baquet, who joined Twitter back in September 2011, has more than 11,000 followers, yet has only composed a grand total of two tweets.
While most professional journalists see the obvious benefits of Twitter, high-profile holdouts like Baquet have their defenders. After all, Twitter can be an obvious distraction to reporters on deadline, and with so many social networks out there (have you gotten an invite yet from Ello?), is 8-year-old Twitter even that sexy anymore? As Matt McFarland over at the Washington Post noted, Buzzfeed actually gets more traffic from Pinterest than Twitter, and no one is complaining about Baquet’s lack of pinned recipes.
So should it really be a requirement, in today’s digital environment, for reporters and editors to be on Twitter? Yes, according to Steve Buttry, formerly the digital transformation editor for Digital First Media, now Lamar Visiting Scholar at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, Buttry called out Baquet in a blog post, making the case that journalists that choose not to be active on Twitter “choose to remain or fall behind.”
But
to all the editors and reporters reading this column, I’m only going to
say this once—it’s not cool, and actually detrimental to your job, to
ignore Twitter.
According to a now-famous innovation report from the New York Times, the
company has struggled getting all of its journalists to board this “new
media” train and embrace digital change. It specifically mentioned the
importance of Twitter to the digital future of the Times no less than 18
times. Buzzfeed had a little fun with the Times’ staff, taking readers
on a tour of some of the abandoned accounts its staffers launched that
have since been abandoned, a “graveyard of egg profiles.”
Nowhere is this disconnect more apparent than in the newsroom’s leader,
executive editor Dean Baquet, who joined Twitter back in September 2011,
has more than 11,000 followers, yet has only composed a grand total of
two tweets.
While most professional journalists see the obvious benefits of Twitter,
high-profile holdouts like Baquet have their defenders. After all,
Twitter can be an obvious distraction to reporters on deadline, and with
so many social networks out there (have you gotten an invite yet from
Ello?), is 8-year-old Twitter even that sexy anymore? As Matt McFarland
over at the Washington Post noted, Buzzfeed actually gets more traffic
from Pinterest than Twitter, and no one is complaining about Baquet’s
lack of pinned recipes.
- See more at:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Digital-Publishing--To-Tweet-or-Not-to-Tweet-#sthash.K5MqyV7e.dpuf
But
to all the editors and reporters reading this column, I’m only going to
say this once—it’s not cool, and actually detrimental to your job, to
ignore Twitter.
According to a now-famous innovation report from the New York Times, the
company has struggled getting all of its journalists to board this “new
media” train and embrace digital change. It specifically mentioned the
importance of Twitter to the digital future of the Times no less than 18
times. Buzzfeed had a little fun with the Times’ staff, taking readers
on a tour of some of the abandoned accounts its staffers launched that
have since been abandoned, a “graveyard of egg profiles.”
Nowhere is this disconnect more apparent than in the newsroom’s leader,
executive editor Dean Baquet, who joined Twitter back in September 2011,
has more than 11,000 followers, yet has only composed a grand total of
two tweets.
While most professional journalists see the obvious benefits of Twitter,
high-profile holdouts like Baquet have their defenders. After all,
Twitter can be an obvious distraction to reporters on deadline, and with
so many social networks out there (have you gotten an invite yet from
Ello?), is 8-year-old Twitter even that sexy anymore? As Matt McFarland
over at the Washington Post noted, Buzzfeed actually gets more traffic
from Pinterest than Twitter, and no one is complaining about Baquet’s
lack of pinned recipes.
- See more at:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Digital-Publishing--To-Tweet-or-Not-to-Tweet-#sthash.K5MqyV7e.dpuf
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Digital-Publishing--To-Tweet-or-Not-to-Tweet-
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