The number of tweets posted by journalists from UK media outlets fell by almost 25%, according to the latest NewsTweet Index from PR firm Portland, with big falls at Sky News, which could be linked to its controversial social media guidelines introduced earlier this year.

Overall apparent changes in the tweeting habits of some of the UK’s top journalists saw 80,000 fewer tweets sent in the last three months compared to the previous quarter despite the ongoing economic turmoil, elections, big tax (and pastie) stories, the government’s problems and the on going Leveson inquiry, which all featured heavily. Read More »

PR firm Portland has released its second NewsTweet Index, which has propelled PoliticsHome.com editor, Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh), to the number one spot in the top 50. Waugh is also the only journalist in the list not from a major media group.

Overall, The Guardian continues to have the highest number of journalists listed in the top 50, with ten represented, but this is considerably less than last time as the list appears to have been broadened out. Read More »

The Twittersphere lit up last night as it was reported that Sky News was introducing a new social media policy that bans its journalists from retweeting non-Sky sources. Essentially the broadcaster that has done so much to establish its reputation in social news is taking an anti-social media approach.

Staff were informed of the new social media policy in an email that told staff not to “re-tweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter”. Read More »

The Guardian and its journalists have topped a list of the top 50 most influential news tweeters, according to PR agency Portland and Tweetminster, with the BBC coming in second.

The Guardian and its journalists accounted for nine of the top 20 places, but the top spot when to a Sky News journalist. While the Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times and Independent all features prominently in this news oriented list there is one notable exception that doesn’t: The Times, which seems to suggest this list isn’t quite a far ranging as it needs to be. Read More »

Back in May the New York Times put real people behind Twitter feed as an experiment to see what would happen. It only tried it for a while before it reverted to mostly auto tweets, which is what many news organisations do including the BBC. Until now that is.

Today the BBC is implementing a new system after auto tweeting its headlines for years it will be putting its editors behind the tweet wheel and getting them to tweet during day time hours. It makes all the difference. Read More »

The 2010 World Cup. Brings to mind the gathered hopes of the nation, the inevitable near-misses, the good performances and the bad, and a whole lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda.

….And Paul the psychic octopus.

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Social media really has a thing for the heads of TV news political editors. The latest one being demanded on a plate is that of Nick Robinson, the BBC’s political editor, who is being targeted by a Facebook group with almost 1,700 members. Read More »

If you haven’t already seen the YouTube video clips (yes plural) of the Sky News political correspondent Adam Boulton they are very worth watching as they highlight a growing trend for viewers to strike back on social networks potentially causing serious trouble for media figures. Read More »

As it cuts thousands of jobs AOL is looking to hire students to blog on its hyperlocal blog network Patch.

According to Business Insider, Patch’s president Warren Webster was recently at an NYU Journalism event along with Darien Patch editor Cecilia Smith where they were doing short interviews and collecting CVs.

The news comes after Sky News in the UK advertised for student journalists to contribute to its General Election coverage. A story on the Centre for Journalism website says students will be “paid a fee. And we’ll DOUBLE the fee if you get the results to the Sky News Centre first, beating all the opposition”.