I thought I was done blogging about whether top editors should be active on Twitter. Then last night, Lexi Mainland tweeted this:
.@PostBaron and @arusbridger have made me come around in my thinking: having the top editor active on Twitter is important.
— Lexi Mainland (@lexinyt) October 17, 2014
As her Twitter profile says, she’s an editor on the Times’ interactive news desk. Not exactly agreeing with me (as you’ll see in some subsequent tweets), but sort of agreeing with me. So, given the interest in my criticism of her boss, Dean Baquet, and other top editors who aren’t active on Twitter, and Baquet’s response to me, and the response to Baquet, I thought I’d give the topic at least one more ride and curate last night’s Twitter exchange among several of us:
“Pontificating.” OK, that could be me.
What I’d say here is that Baquet and his predecessors, who have been similarly dismissive of Twitter in terms of personal use, have led a lot of great innovation at the Times. So “suffering” isn’t exactly the right word, and I don’t think I ever said innovation at the Times was suffering. In many respects, it’s been an innovation leader.
But a Times committee studied innovation and said the newsroom needed to do better. That’s true in any newsroom, but no other has identified the need (to my knowledge) as clearly or in as much detail as the Times. Baquet has embraced the report and said he plans to implement its recommendations.
My point is that you lead innovation more effectively by example than by exhortation. But back to the tweets (where I think I made that point):
Valid point: I believe Twitter is a valuable tool for every newsroom leader and editorial-page editor.
[…] A NY Times editor: “Having the top editor active on Twitter is important’ […]
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