June 22, 2011

Reuters.com
“Some of it comes from people who haven’t paid close attention to what I’ve said on the subject,” says Bill Keller, “and some of it, I think, comes from people who know better but who have made a reputation for themselves by being digital evangelists and cyber-puritans, who treat any hint of skepticism as heresy.”

My view of social media is that it is a set of tools, not a religion. Twitter and Facebook are brilliant tools, the journalistic uses of which are still being plumbed. They are great for disseminating interesting material. They are useful for gathering information, including from places that are inaccessible. They provide a kind of serendipity, a sense of discovery, that some people thought would be lost as print periodicals declined.

The New York Times executive editor also tells Anthony DeRosa:

* “In our newsroom, I’ve been an enthusiastic promoter of aggregation. I think readers come to us not just for our original reporting, but for our judgment.”
* “I follow Twitter and pay attention to it, but I rarely Tweet because I have a rather large platform here, called The New York Times.”
* “If I had to pick one challenge we met with lasting impact, it would be our successful adaptation to the digital world.”

(Emma Gilbey Keller tweets that DeRosa’s interview with her husband was “great.”)

Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.
Donate
From 1999 to 2011, Jim Romenesko maintained the Romenesko page for the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based non-profit school for journalists. Poynter hired him in August…
Jim Romenesko

More News

Back to News

Comments

Comments are closed.