Given the power of ‘follow‘, there is a potentially vast difference between subscribing to an author feed on a newspaper website and ‘following’ an author.
Newspaper content is presented online in a multitude of ways that are still being developed and experimented with. This includes pages that display the current day’s news like a virtual newspaper front page, news by media type, and articles grouped by various measures of popularity.
However, more and more, I can’t help but feel that the best way to publish professional news will be to turn a newspaper websites into a feed-driven social network. Bring journalists right to the front and let people ‘follow’ them. It might look something like a Tumblr dashboard optimized for a higher volume of longer-form content.
It would require journalists dedicating more time to interacting with readers, commenting, liking and reblogging so that we could follow them rather than just subscribing. However, it definitely would not require journalists to share every minutiae of their private lives. That’s not what this is about.
The closest thing out there is Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish blog, although it’s moderated privately. It includes content somewhat akin to ‘reblogs’ and ‘likes’ but squashed into a traditional blog format of links and block quotes.
It enables people to follow Andrew more closely than just reading his columns. I think it’s why the new way people are able (and prefer) to find and share news presents a specific opportunity for journalists. They can be revenue streams that news organizations fund and manage like professional sports teams manage a squad of players.
Posted on March 13, 2009
My name is Phillip Baker and this is my personal blog about finding value in a world of free information.