04Twitter

How big is Twitter• Launched 5 years ago

• 200 million users

• raised about $360m in capital,

including a last round of $200m, on

a $3.7bn valuation

• Revenue per user : $0.25 vs. $3 for

Facebook

But…. • Since 18 months, traffic has been flat.

• Time spent is eroding.

• March 2011: 12 mn 37 sec vs. 14 mn 6 sec

per user in March 2010 .

• Facebook more than 6 hours spent per

month

• 10% of all users account for 90% of the

twits

Dick Costolo Twitter CEO

• http://allthingsd.com/video/?video_id=0D9AAB1D-7EBE-4D8

6-BEC0-6A0723D63F92

Twitter is important for news

a) It is an effective promotional tool for

value-added stories

b) It allows reporters to actually

pinpoint their most loyal audience –

and establish a relationship with it

c) It doesn’t kill value like RSS feeds.

Example: the Bin Laden coverage

• 4-4:30pm — 79 Navy Seals raid

Osama Bin Laden’s compound in

Abbottabad, Pakistan.

• 7:24pm — A former Navy intelligence

officer name Keith Urbahn, currently

Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff (we all

discovered the former Defense secretary

indeed has one) shot this tweet:

Within one minute Keith Urbahn’s shout

was retweeted 80 times. Including by

New York Times’ media reporter

Brian Stelter. Another minute later, the

original tweet had multiplied by 300,

triggering instant global speculation.

• 9:46pm — The White House communication

staff on duty sends a three word “Get to

work” email to the press corps. At the same

time, Dan Pfeiffer, the White House official

serial twitterer sends the following:

• 10:40pm – As Barack Obama is still

working on his speech, and after

frantic phone calls to verify the story,

the Times’ national security team

and its Washington bureau decide to

run a one line mention of Bin Laden’s

Death. Ten minutes later, the website

shows this:

• 10:45pm – All three TV networks interrupt their

programming and break the news.

• 11:30pm – President Obama speaks live from the

White House. 56.5 million viewers watch his

address.

• 12:45am (May 2nd) — The East Coast edition of

the New York Times closes. It contains a 10 pages

section titled “The Death of Bin Laden” (NYT’s

editor Bill Keller decided to drop the “Mr.”).

Observation #1: Twitter is king.

• A well-connected, politically driven staffer leaks

the news first. No one knew Keith Urbahn

before (see his profile in New York Observer),

but his Twitter ID gave him credibility; for his

Twitter followers, his post immediately raised a

red flag: Rummy’s aide would not compromise

his boss by leaking false information.

Between 9:46pm EST and

Obama's address at 11:30pm :

15 m Tweets

exchanged

Observation #2: As notions, “edition” and deadline are dead.

The leaders of the news pack took the

straightforward option: dump

everything on the internet,

as fast as you can and without

regard for closing deadlines.

Impact on newspapers' editorial strategy

Relying on:

–Exclusive

–Expertise

–Value added

–Journalistic firepower

2300 words8 bylines

Practicalset up a twitter feeds list

to cover…

Twitter is less pernicious than search

Eli Pariser

Pioneering online organizer Eli

Pariser is the author of "The

Filter Bubble," about how

personalized search might be

narrowing our worldview.

TED video here : http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html