by Uncle Alan
A Reuters story recently quoted Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, who said, “From the very beginning this has seemed almost as if it’s a news wire coming from everywhere around the world …. I think a Twitter News Service would be something that would be very open and shared with many different news organizations around the world.”
Naturally, word of this idea, spoken publicly, spread quickly. Soon, reports were flying all over that a Twittter news service was eminent.
However, TechCrunch quickly followed up with a report on some tweets from Sean Garrett, the communications guy at Twitter. According to TechCrunch, Sean said Stone was “just being imaginative” and there are no real plans for a “Twitter news service.”
I personally hope there is a Twitter News Service of some kind. And soon. The idea’s especially appealing to me. I’ve been a proponent of syndicating content as long as I can remember — 30 years or more. It’s a benefit to the content creators and to the publishers who get it into the hands of grateful readers.
The idea of news wire services is old but still alive and even more powerful today.
The idea of a news wire is as old as the hills, bringing up in my aging mind the days of newsrooms filled with cigar-smoking reporters with bottles of gin hidden in their desk drawers, jumping up and clawing their way into the teletype machine room to be first to grab the next story off the wire every time it chatters itself awake.
That’s probably why I built my first hugely successful business, BBS Press Service, around the concept. I mean — come on. Cigars? Gin? Not all that important. But a crack at seeing a hot news story first? That should be any social publisher’s dream situation.
But, what worked in those days works considerably differently today. News feeds are everywhere online. Not only is the cigar and hidden bottle of gin are no longer a requirement of the trade. Neither is the that cool noisy teletype machine.
As I pointed out in Build Your Own Custom News Wire, right here in the Portal, you can easily put together your own personal super-powerful press service feed with Yahoo Pipes in about an hour or so. Free of charge.
With a bit more work and patience, you can “hone” the feed down to an extremely laser-sharp targeted focus and then literally pour it automatically into a blog. Also free of charge.
Get AP Wire Service to do that for ya!
Twitter’s always been an exceptional source of info for your online publications, too. WordPress plugins make it easy to tap the Twitter stream and deliver a specialized version of the feed to your visitors in a number of online formats.
Still, I find it exciting to think a customizable Twitter news feed might one day be available. I don’t believe the “media guy” for a minute. He’s just following up to cover over a statement that was, at its worst, not ready for release yet — if you ask me.
Twitters Biz Stone never said Twitter was going to provide the news service themselves
Besides, Stone never said Twitter was going to provide the service themselves. He specifically pointed to the possibility of Twitter forming relationships with other news services, to provide customized portions of the stream. Presumably, the relationships would go both ways, adding even more powerful info and sources to the Twitter stream.
It’s still difficult for me to see how this could be monetized – unless Twitter were to launch an AP-like service and charge for access to the stream. I’d still gladly pay, if they include bloggers and smaller online publishers with affordable access, especially if it was customized to fit my audience’s tastes and information needs.
It seems evident to me that, whenever major news breaks these days, Twitter is the first place you see indications something’s going on. So much so that major news corporations are now tapping the stream in their own ways, to add to their own reporting – especially during those crucial early moments, right after something major has taken place and before the wire services have had time to investigate, put together their stories and get their news out.
Nearly two and a half years ago, Stone expressed similar sentiments on the Twitter blog, following an earthquake near Los Angeles. “Many news agencies get their feed from a news wire service such as the Associated Press,” he said. “’Strong quake shakes Southern California’ was pushed out by AP about 9 minutes after people began Twittering primary accounts from their homes, businesses, doctor’s appointments, or wherever they were when the quake struck. Whether it’s updates from best friends, Internet pals, companies, brands, or breaking world events, the real-time aspect of sending and receiving Twitter updates continues to motivate our work.”
Customized , targeted Twitter streams would be seriously cool.
The vision’s clearly been there all along. Especially once Twitter got past the “getting up to get another beer – this movie sucks” stage, if you know what I mean.
The ability to tap Twitter’s more than 160 million users, all acting as live on-the-scenes reporters, feeding back news and opinion and reactions and more, 24/7 is inarguably attractive.
It just has to be tailored to smaller media, too. Emerging media would gladly pay if it were a fee-based service, based upon the size of their reach. Major corporate publications, with large circulations, whether online or off, would pay more. Smaller publishers would also pay more as they grow.
The offline wire service industry has followed this model for decades. I know ASCAP and other content licensing services charge on a sliding scale, too.
Either way, whether there ever is a Twitter News Network or not, we can do it ourselves. All we have to do is get on Yahoo Pipes, find unique interesting information feeds from online sources all over, filter them to specific niche criteria, then spit them back out and make them available to our own growing audiences.
Free of charge.
I’m going to start pulling together lists of feeds and sources of great feeds here in the Portal soon. Until then – have a happy Thanksgiving, if you’re in the United States and please join with us in celebrating the concept of gratitude and help spread it the world over.
We’ve been talking about this on Amplify today Old Media Idea of the Day. Let’s Use Twitter as a New Source
We don’t need a new service.. Twitter IS the news wire you talk about.
We also don’t need someone filtering the news. Old media did that because they could send reporters to places we couldn’t get to and assemble wire stories for us. Today, anyone can get the raw feed.
We still need commentary and insight, and good writing is a skill more needed than ever.
I suppose some more tools for the writers would be nice. We talked to 3 CEO’s working on this on a recent episode of “Social Media Radio”
I hear what you’re saying, Warren. And we’re not in disagreement. That was one of the points of the post. I know I said I’d pay for a Twitter news service and I probably should have clarified that more. I would — because I disagree with you about the “old school” idea of syndication and filtering (I’ll get to that in a moment), but I should have added more clearly the price would have to be extremely low. Something suitable for an audience the size that the Portal reaches. Not a fee based on some pie-in-the-sky estimate of what “potential reach” could be. Maybe $5 a month.
And I’m not entirely sure there’s enough market for it to support a service at that price point, without participation of a lot of bigger players paying a lot more for their extensive reach.
I do see your point about Twitter already being the news service. I discussed that in the piece, along with a pointer to my post on using a mash-up service like Yahoo Pipes to simplify your life and sort multiple RSS feeds, Web data streams and sources like Twitter and a lot more into one simple stream that’s then easy to glance through every day.
I don’t know about you, but the coolest time I have is when I’m putting pieces together of possible interest to my audience, My second favorite is finding the stuff. Picking and sorting through hundreds of various sources for interesting takes on things, new developments, insights and motivation. But I’d personally have no time left to put the stuff together if I had to pick through everything any one of those resources puts out in a single day, let alone all of ‘em.
I strongly suspect most everyone feels the same way. This is what makes blogs and websites that do the sifting on specialized subjects or specific slants popular. People gravitate to them, even though it’s perfectly ok for them to get their news from anywhere.
I apply an “old school” concept to new-world technology and utilize mashup tools like Yahoo Pipes to create my own personal wire service that I can go through quickly. Then I try to add my spin, my take, my reasons why, and my general reactions to it — the commentary, as you mentioned.
In my book, it’s not an all or nothing situation. It’s a choice of multitudes of options, each with their particular feel to all the various types of writers, editors. publishers, producers, and audience.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Is Twitter launching a news service?: -- Topsy.com
Pingback: The Twitter News Network?
I’m not for a Twitter News Network, per se. Twitter IS the news right now. The “news” as we know it is car chases, weather, sports and a local murder.
What will be better if Twitter remains relevant, is a more advanced “search” system and widespread understanding of its utility.
When internet TV is a reality, I’d love to see an integration of Twitter on the 2nd screen, streaming what is being talked about on the “news”.
Dan