The Economist ventures deeper into social media
The Economist bets on Twitter to boost web traffic
Twitter’s explosive growth rate got many traditional news organizations looking to social media as a source of web traffic and fresh readers. Since 2008 the number of users of the micro-blogging service in the US has trebled and is forecast to cross 30 million soon. The New York Times, the Guardian and the BBC are amongst the journalistic organizations that have already assigned editors to work exclusively with social networking. The Economist will follow suit.
According to the Financial Times, the magazine wants to increase the number of followers it has on Twitter from 100,000 to 750,000 within six months. Part of the strategy is the creation of a full-time position dedicated exclusively to the micro-blog. The American broadcaster CNN is currently the news organization with the biggest number of followers, going beyond 2,800,000.
Apart from boosting its Twitter page, The Economist wants to extend its Facebook fan’s base from 180,000 to 500,000 in the same period. To achieve this the magazine will remodel its website to make available some of the features provided by the social network. According to the FT, changes should be seen in the next three to four months.
Readers of The Economist’s website will soon be able to log in and make comments using their Facebook identity, through Facebook Connect. Economist.com will also take on features similar to social networks itself, allowing readers to create profile pages and earn a reputation through other users’ recommendations of their comments on the site.
The magazine has not disclosed details of how it plans to meet these ambitious targets. In his interview for the FT, however, publisher Ben Edwards stated that tens of thousands of pounds would be invested in marketing.
The Economist is one of the latest big-name publishers to acknowledge the potential of social networking sites. In October 2009 the BBC has appointed Alex Gubbay as its dedicated social media editor. The TechCrunch.com reported:
Alex Gubbay will start his new role as BBC News’ first Social Media Editor in January and will be charged with the editorial development of “user-generated content and social media initiatives across the BBC newsroom”, reports Brand Republic. To his credit, he’s currently Interactive News Editor for BBC Sport, and so, presumably, isn’t new to the social media scene as a whole, but being a late comer to Twitter doesn’t look too smart.
BBC’s decision followed the nomination of Jennifer Preston by the New York Times as its social media editor in May 2009. The Editorsweblog.com informed that her endeavour is to keep “expanding the use of social media networks and publishing platforms to improve New York Times journalism and deliver it to readers”.
While several news organizations strive to profit with the growth of Twitter, the micro-blog itself still lacks a lucrative business model. To many specialists 2010 will be a defining year with speculations ranging from an acquisition by Google to an initial public offering. Despite its huge appeal and rapid expansion, it is still very likely that the company operates in the red.
