Twitter vs. NYT: Which is the more enduring business model?
A major online player says the microblog’s real-time nature provides its staff job security and that the Gray Lady staff is ‘not guaranteed a future.’
In the world of PR, the discussion has been taking place in client meetings and communications planning sessions for several years. Still, it remains unclear whether the industry has placed its bets on either model just yet.
Peter Thiel, however, has.
The PayPal co-founder and online trendsetter added fuel to that particular fire at a recent press conference when he declared that Twitter will outlast The New York Times. Thiel contended that “Twitter’s roughly 1,000 employees will have jobs a decade from now,” while Times‘ journalists should be worried about their jobs because the newspaper “is not guaranteed a future in the digital age.”
Most of the communications world has already seen the steep decline of traditional media in favor of quick, instantaneous communications platforms such as Twitter. This is particularly true with breaking news, as unfiltered newsfeeds on Twitter overtake the several-hour delay of traditional media outlets.
Everyone knows the faults inherent in Twitter news updates—unconfirmed reports, hearsay, rumors—but the power is phenomenal. There are no paywalls and no lumbering editing processes, and its live coverage can’t be touched.
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