Three newspapers that Twitter well
Tuesday, 10 February, 2009 — twitter journalism
Last week, I talked about flaws in how some newspapers operate on Twitter. As part of looking for counter-examples for that post, and picking up a recommendation from a coworker, I present three papers that Twitter well, in order of how well they represent how I would like a news organization to approach Twitter.
First is the Chicago Tribune’s @ColonelTribune. The Tribune apparently has what they term “unmanned feeds.” But the Colonel is where they shine. Namely, there are live people that embody the Colonel. How many, I don’t know, but that’s not important. What is important is, there’s personality. Sure, there are links to the news, but it’s in a conversational way. The Colonel feels “real.” Plus, what the Colonel chooses to link is definitely stuff people would be interested in. For instance:
A famous N. Side bakery has been closed for several health code violations. http://tr.im/fhvh
The Colonel isn’t afraid to retweet. The Colonel live tweets (as happened during President Obama’s prime-time press conference last night). The Colonel sends the reader away with links to local blogs and (as I saw today), the Sun Times.
Chase announces it will double its minimum monthly payments andcharge a $10 monthly fee for some customers. http://bit.ly/vQOX via @suntimes
Another nice thing? The Colonel will message followers with a word of thanks for a RT or via tweet of something the Colonel posted. This is supposed to be social media, and while it’s possible to get down right middle school with drama over who’s retweeting or not, it seems like news orgs default towards aloof. Right now, aloof is not the strategy to sustain the news industry. @ColonelTribune gets the balance right.
The second paper I’m highlighting is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (disclosure applies), @startelegram. One of my coworkers, @1918, brought them to my attention a couple of days ago:
I’d like to give a shoutout to my friends @startelegram, one of the few newspapers that seems to get twitter - they don’t just dump headline [sic]
What’s to like? It’s locally focused, it leans toward things that people want to know about, like severe weather, that traditionally, newspapers seem to do their best to ignore. TV stations can go overboard with Doppler porn, but I still like knowing when and where the weather’s coming. This is ideal:
http://bit.ly/14sMt Latest on tonight’s dallas-fort worth weather: bad stuff coming between 8 and 10 pm
I also like that there’s no fear about not being “objective”:
So ARod says he did it. Does anyone in Texas really care what he says anymore? http://bit.ly/RHCr
This is what a lot of people want to see with their hometown paper, a willingness to show some emotion. Not writing about emotions in clinical terms. To have them. There’s also a tweet about some of the top stories for tomorrow. None of it’s overbearing or worked to death.
My final paper is The Oregonian, @oregonian, the first paper I recall coming across when I joined Twitter. In contrast to @ColonelTribune and @startelegram, this feed is a headline dump. But it’s smarter than your average bear. The tweets are headlines, and headlines only. They stand alone as complete tweets. @oregonian also respects followers by posting at a reasonable pace. Tweets can be separated by 20 minutes or 23 hours. That’s really a nice choice. Music wouldn’t be music without space between the notes (hat tip, Debussy).
So, I submit, when a paper wants to take Twitter seriously, these are three solid examples of what can be done.
Other reading to consider in the context of newspaper twittering:
- My friend and remote coworker, Marc Matteo, submits “Newspapers could actually try online,” in which he laments that, for many papers, there still isn’t a good online strategy.
- Rands talks about the three design decisions behind Twitter and their implications. Decision number three, with a twist: Newspapers shouldn’t get a karma boost on Twitter just for being there.