Another day, another piece of news broken (to many) via Twitter.
At 1.11pm today the following three items dropped on to my Twitter feed from Tim Bradshaw, digital media correspondent at the FT; Ian Burrell, media editor of the Independent; and Conrad Quilty-Harper, currently working on the Press Gazette:
@tim breaking news: News International is proposing to close thelondonpaper
@iburrell Wow, News International looking to close down the london paper
@Coneee News International is planning to close @thelondonpaper Story up on @pressgazette imminently
Now, all three may have been dutifully typing while watching one of those rare things – a ‘Breaking News’ event on Sky News that justifies all that swooshing and red graphic-ry. But for those of us not forced to have rolling news in their place of work, Twitter has become the medium of choice for new news.
Among the lunchtime retweeting, these three and others have been moving the story on – either with quotes from James Murdoch or, in the case of Burrell, a speculative punt:
@iburrell sounds to me like they’ve cut a deal with Associated to merge the frees, but i’ll need to check. less litter on the streets i suppose
As I write, News International is seventh in Twitter’s trending topics. Not bad for local story about a local paper.
(UPDATE: Freelance web developer David Natriss – @Natts – who had a regular gig at thelondonpaper online provides some interesting commentary on today’s events and a robust defence on paper’s editorial line.)
Related:
– Here’s Why Twitter As Glorified RSS Misses The Point
– Five Ways News Organisations Should Use Twitter
Jon Bernstein 
[it’s really sad that it’s going it was way
better that the metro in every sense, the
articles, the graphics the content, can’t
stand the metro at times]
and it dominated the front page of the Evening Standard, reflecting its importance for the editorial staff of the Evening Stabdard as opposed to its importance to people in London