How news organizations are intensifying their use
of social networking venues like Twitter and Facebook to circulate
their stories and connect with their communities
BY BRET SCHULTE
anna wasn't much of a storm by the time it spun
across North Carolina in September 2008. It
hurled rain, and it blackened a few houses. But for
Wilmington's Star-News it was packing something
bigger. You might even call it a wind of change.
Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin was fresh on the job, hav-
ing just arrived from the Star-Banner in Ocala, Florida. When
the storm hit, she was hunkered down in her new duplex, just
two blocks from tbe ocean. The house sbuddered in the wind.
Then the lights snapped off Some life-loving folks might have
crawled under the bed. But Tomlin had other ideas.
"I was tweeting all this stuff from my cell phone," she says.
So were other Star-News staffers across the area. "We were able
to connect witb people all over tbe community wbo were seeing
tbe same thing. I think that was the first time I thought, 'My
goodness, look at what this can do in a situation like this.'"
Until then, the New York Times Co.-owned Star-News
(circulation 48,000) had one main Twitter feed that supplied
headlines to followers and not much else. A few staffers had
their own accounts. But in anticipation of Hanna, the news-
room decided to try something new, a unique feed for reporters
and the public to post tbeir own eyewitness accounts and ques-
tions during the storm. "It wasn't [Hurricane] Katrina by any
stretcb of the imagination," Tomlin says, "but people from ail
22
over the world were suddenly following these tweets because
it was happening in that moment."
A year later, the Star-News is putting out stories and dis-
cussion topics on 15 Twitter feeds. Meanwhile, 30 of its staff-
ers have their own accounts, which they use to promote their
work, engage the community and mine story ideas. The paper
(if one can still use the term) is also pushing out stories on its
own Facebook page and encouraging reporters to do tbe same
on their own pages. Many do. Says the Web development man-
ager, Vaughn Hagerty: "That conversation, that feedback, is
key to a lot of the things we're doing."
In New York, the Wall Street Journal is pumping out and
bringing in information through more than 100 Twitter feeds,
a veritable cardiovascular system alive with stories and dia-
logue. The New York Times has its Twitter feeds, too. But
it's also pushing TimesPeople, which works with the gamut
of social networks to allow people to recommend, share and
comment on Times content with friends who also sign up for
TimesPeople. Looming Internet behemoth The Huffington
Post, meanwhile, offers its own version: By signing up, every
comment you make on a Huffington Post piece automatically
sends the comment and the story across your social network of
choice. For Facebook, that means it appears on your news feed,
where all your friends can see (and click) for themselves.
American Journalism Review
 iTTT
All tbi.s focus on Facehook friends and Twitter followers
and sowing stories and links across the Web is dramatically
altering a side of the business that the newsroom never much
thought about: distribution. What was once the province of
doorsteps and homepages is now about the hustle of network-
ing, the savvy application of technology and the dark art of
promotion and marketing. And, increasingly, it's everyone's
job. The imperative for newsrooms to push stories far and wide
is redefining the work of reporters and editors and prompt-
ing even more questions about the future of audiences, news
brands and that standard-bearer of online journalism; the
good old homepage.
That the social networking scene has pushed into the news
busiiess is no surprise, but what is raising eyebrows is how
quickly the famously slow-footed industry has embraced it.
"We're seeing that the user, the citizen, has become an inte-
gi'al part of the evolution of a news story," says Amy Mitchell,
deputy director of the Pew Research Center's Project for
Excellence in Journalism. "Why one story might become widely
read and another doesn't has to do with the pass-along effect."
That effect means that readers have less reason to visit a site's
homopagean online surrogate for the publication brand and
its role as information gatekeeper Now, newsrooms are scram-
bling to reassert themselves in an era that is nothing less than
Wlnler 2009
an uprising of status updates. "Maybe in earlier eras (news
organizations I needed proof of concept to do anything; now
nobody's waiting for proof of concept," says I^ee Rainie, director
of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "They're looking
for any way possihle to stay with the innovation curve."
F
or reporters, the curve has come up especially fast.
"In the old days, most journalists thought it was their
job to write a story, and it was someone else's job to
distrihute it, market it and find an audience for it,"
says Alan Murray, executive editor, online for the Wail
Street Journal. "Tn the new world, the journalist has a respon-
sibility for the whole set. That really does change the job of the
journalist in some really profound ways."
As is well documented, asking journalists to do more has
often paid dividends for news organizations. No exception
here. By having newsroom staffers manage social network-
ing accounts, they multiply the organization'.^ reach across the
Web. Getting a story placed high on Digga live ranking of the
Web's most popular offeringscan, in turn, draw thousands of
more hits. Twitter followers have proven to be avid and loyal
readers, engaging with reporters who cover fields of inter-
est to them. Facehook pages have become a venue for news
THE DISTRIBUTION REVOLUTION
organizations and individual reporters to post links to stories
and respond directly to comments and questions.
Readers are blushing from all the sudden attention; news
organizations, meanwhile, are hoping that social networking
will reduce their dependence on the unknowable algorithms
of search engines to deliver traffic. While a report from the
Pew Research Center shows that the number of people using
Twitter and other networking services to get their news fix is
still lowjust 10 percent of those with social networking pro-
filesalmost everyone expects that numher to grow. And fast.
In September, the Wall Street Journal held a series of con-
ference calla with bureau chiefs and reporters to help them
adjust to the new world order. Not everyone is keen on it. Even
some reporters just five to 10 years out of school think that the
idea of accruing and catering to online followers and friends
is strangeor worse, unhecoming. Rather than mandating
everyone to become social networkers, the Journal is recruit-
ing volunteers to use Twitter to represent "subjects of inter-
est," like the automotive industry or personal technology.
The Journal isn't limiting itself to tweeting free content. It
does the same for subscriber-only stories, with a note that they
are behind a pay wall. "The beauty of Twitter is you follow key
people who are interested in the topics that you are interested
in," Murray says. "RSS feeds are a thing of the past, so we're
encouraging selected reporters to start Twitter feeds to interest-
ing stories and help drive traffic to the site." He does the same,
often using his feed to inform his 5,000 followers of Journal
pieces that don't get play on the homepage, like a sui-vey on
the eve of President Barack Ohama's ill-fated visit to Denmark
asking readers where the 2016 Olympics should go. In a show
of prescience, only 20 percent picked Chicago. "I thought that
was interesting," Murray says. "So I tweeted it." Nevertheless,
the paper is discouraging reporters from setting up personal
Twitter accounts out of worry that off-the-clock ideas and opin-
ions could be misinterpreted. (See Drop Cap, page 6.)
Beyond the give and take of Twitter posts, the Journal is
also working to integrate social networks more closely with its
site, though Murray declined to give more specifics. One recent
example, though, might provide a clue. In August, the paper
worked with Digg Dialogg when interviewing U.S. Treasury
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. The questions the Journal
posed came directly from the Digg community. "It's another
way of working more closely with social networks," Murray
says, "because we think they are going to be an increasingly
important way for people to get their content."
Chad Lorenz, the homepage editor at the online magazine
Slate, is also prepping for the social-networking shakeup. The
site gets little traffic from search engines. Most of its readers
stream through the Web site's front door. Even so, "we know
people are reading differently," Lorenz says. "We know there's
way too much out there for people to go from site to site." To
keep its content up to speed. Slate has most of its roster of writ-
ers on Twitter By himself, chief political correspondent John
Dickerson has 1.2 million followers. That's not in the Ashton
24
Kutcher stratosphere, but he's outperforming Newt Gingrich
and Justin Timberlake.
On Facebook, Slate, which is owned by the Washington Post
Co., has heen more innovative than most. In addition to its own
page, on which it posts choice stories every day, Slate has also
created five Facebook pages in the last year to promote indi-
vidual projects. Called "Fresca Fellowships" after Editor David
Plotz's prolific consumption ofthe grapefruit-flavored carbon-
ated beverage, the projects enable reporters to spend a month
on a piece and to work on developing an online community to
support it. One fellowship went to Dahlia Lithwick, who toiled
away on a chick-lit novel, "Saving Face," at a pace of a chapter
a day, with the help of more than 1,700 Facebook fans who post
plot and character suggestions on the page wall. One question
posed hy Lithwick on the page: "Whats the meanest possible
thing Cole could say to Erica in a blowout fight?" yielded more
than 50 comments. A few: "you're just like your mother," "And
you never floss!"
Like most other publications, Slato doesn't know exactly
how much traffic is coming from these efforts. And much of
the interaction with readers occurs on Facebook or through
Twitter as well as on its own Web sites. Still, the growth poten-
tial for news sites is huge, editors say. From his bare corner
office overlooking D.C.'s Dupont Circle, Plotz says, "I've been
pushing very hard to make sure my colleagues understand
we can't depend on the idea that the promotion of the Slate
homepage will mean a life on the Web."
H J H hat social networking means for traffic depends
H V H B on the site. Some are seeing a surge at the ai*ti-
HB cle level, though it's hard to know how much
^H ^H comes from better search engine optimization
^B ^B and how much comes from social networking.
And not all that side-door entry is coming at the expense ofthe
homepage. Traffic on the Wall Street Journal homepage, for
instance, has exploded by 250 percent in the past two years,
according to Murray.
For others, homepage traffic simply isn't that important
and might be growing even less so. Rather than expectr
ing readers to come to its Web site, the Center for Public
Integi-ity, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization
in Washington, D.C, is "working hard to go where the audi-
ence is," says Executive Director Bill Buzenberg. Participating
in that mission is Steve Carpinelli, a media relations expert
whose job description includes managing a massive cross-
listed database of media contacts. It's organized by subject,
such as the environment; as well as medium, such as bloggers
and aggregators like The Huffington Post; television; radio
and newspapers. His goal is to find people willing to take for
free the Center's work, which is also located on its own Web
sitenot that many people bother to look. The Center is also
on Twitter and Facebook but has put its knack for whizbang
interactive maps and graphics to best use with a newsletter, an
American Joumellsm Review

For some, homepage
traffic simply isn't that
importantand might he
growing even less so.
e-mail with more content, images and links than most home-
pages. "I don't think the homepage is for everyone," Buzenberg
says. "Readers almost all come to us through our projects."
For other outfits, the distribution revolution has had a
direct impact on the way editors think about and use their
Web sites, particularly the homepage. In June, the Landmark-
owned Roanoke Times created a new position; the dayside
delivery editor. The job entails managing "the nowness of the
Web site," says Carole Tarrant, the Times' editor, and includes
churning out the new headlines on the newspaper's Twitter
feed throughout the day. "It's more of a broadcast mentality"
than a typical newspaper mentality, Tarrant says. One of its
strategies is to use the Twitter feed and homepage as a day-
book, issuing reminders of upcoming meetings and events. On
a Monday in October, for example, the homepage and Twitter
feed alerted readers that that day was the voter registration
deadline in Virginiathough there was nothing about It in the
print edition.
For years, search engines were the primary referrers to
news at the article level, frustrating news organizations
everywhere and sparking an all-out war to be king of Google
Mountain. Through social networking, readers still cherry-
pick their news rather than travel to a homepage and digest its
contents. "When news enters the social realm, the referrers are
part ofthe brand," Rainie says. Tou're not only assigning the
value and importance based on the name ofthe organization,
but also the value you place on your friend's judgment." But
it's working to some newspapers' advantage, even small ones.
At the Roanoke Times, referrals from Facebook accounted for
1.72 percent of the total in January. By September that had
jumped to 4.38 percent. Twitter referrals, though fewer than
Facebook's, have nearly doubled since June, when the dayside
editor position was created.
What all this meant for the Roanoke Times brand hit the
paper like an earthquake. Well, it actually was a small earth-
quakea 3.0 tremor that rumbled local residents awake at
4:08 a.m. on May 16. Almost immediately. Twitter accounts lit
up with a frenzy of questions and concerns. "Just got woken
up by a giant boom in Roanoke. Wonder what it was," wrote
a Twitter user dubbed Santoroski. Someone called Pacarrell
responded: "Yes, Virginia, the earth moved for me too." But
no one could say for sure what it was. At the Times, an early
morning online producer saw the tweets and checked in with
the U.S. Geological Survey, which confirmed the quake. He
posted the news to the news site and Facebook page and fired
off a tweet with the news.
"It went from not knowing what it was to the paper say-
ing it was real, so it's real," Tarrant says. "That tells me we
Winlet 2009
THE DISTRIBUTION REVOLUTION
have a space in all this. You can have these citizen journalists,
but they're still really looking to us." The same is true with
national stories, "When big news occurs or large news events
are unfolding, brand matters a lot," Rainie says. "People by
default go to their favorite place, and it tends to be a well-
known mass media outlet." Murray ofthe Wall Street Journal
argues that nothing much has changed. "Homepage traffic is in
some ways a proxy for the power ofthe brand. Weak homepage
traffic could be an indication of a weak brand."
Wilmington's Star-News has gone on the offensive. It's using
Twitter to compete more directly with radio and television by
streaming a live Twitter feed of accidents, gridlock venues and
other road worries directly onto its homepage. Many are sent
in by area residents. The effect is a give and take with readers,
says the editor. "More and more people are expecting that kind
of conversation with us" via social networking, Tomlin says,
"not just pure promotion."
The idea of conversation birthed MyReporter.com, which
allows readers to pose questions to reporters through the Star-
News Web site or via Twitter. Responses usually come back
within 24 hours. It got started last fall when Night Metro
Editor Jim Ware happened across a question on his Twitter
account: Why is there a helicopter fying around my bouse?
Ware did some reporting and tweeted back that police were
searching for a robbery suspect. A year later, MyReporter.
com won a Knight-Batten Citizen Media Award, with judges
hailing it as "a tremendous validation of readers." The paper's
recalibration to social networking has spilled over into the
bricks-and-mortar world. Reporters and editors now frequently
appear at tweet-ups, coffeehouse meet-and-greets with their
Twitter friends.
That's all well and good, but what, if anything, will all this
mean for the bottom line? Social networking is a hit among
readers, but will that translate into dollars? As it is with seem-
ingly everything online, there are no easy answers for mon-
etizing any of this. But people are trying. The Star-News is
working to allow advertisers to embed and aggregate their
own Twitter feeds into online ads. Tomlin gives the example of
a food page with an advertisement carrying eight to 10 Twitter
feeds from local restaurants offering specials and coupons.
That would spare readers from having to follow those restau-
rants individually on Twitter, and the aggregation would help
build a critical mass of eyeballs.
As oflen happens in the Twitter Age, journalists played
entrepreneur with this concept, too. "This was actually a
newsroom idea that was developed and passed along to the
ad department for development," Tomlin says. With any luck,
all this experimentation on social networkingfinding out the
hard way what works and what doesn'twill provide some
answers to the business side of online journalism, which is in
dire need. Hey, that's worth tweeting. CS3
Bret Schulte (bjschult@uark.edu) is a freelance writer and assis-
tant professor of Journalism at the University of Arkansas.
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