Did Twitter Bring Down a Newspaper?

Oh my… a week is a long time in politics and a day is even longer in media, regardless of whether its online, TV or in print!

Yesterday I asked if a new media outcry could hurt the News of the World? And today in a surprise announcement we learn that this Sunday’s edition will be the last, as News International tries to urgent fix a huge hole in the bottom of its boat by sinking the entire ship and not making the then-editor walk the gang plank.

Social Media has gone into overdrive this afternoon, heralding a moral win for online (and in particular Twitter) in bringing down a 168 year old newspaper.

But hang on… was Twitter really solely responsible for the demise of a newspaper by attacking its advertising source in a torrent of Tweets to brand owners and industry figures?

In a word…. No!

Certainly Twitter played a part in getting the upset across but other things in my opinion had a far greater hand, including: Rupert & James Murdoch, traditional & competing media sources and Hugh Grant (yes…. the actor who was exposed by News of the World employee Paul McMullan, but then subsequently turned investigative journalist himself, bugged McMullan and in April publish his findings in The New Statesman).

But in my mind it wasn’t really any of these that finally brought about the end of a Sunday tabloid that was untimately known far more for its star-snooping ‘exclusives’ than for real journalism….. it was the paper itself with its now-exposed immoral and illegal activities.

Good riddance I say……

Could a new media outcry hurt the News Of The World?

Unless you’ve been living under a stone the last few day, or only read the front pages of certain News International newspapers, then you will no doubt know that there’s been a complete outcry at the activities of the sleazy UK Sunday newspaper the News Of The World. The moral outrage has taken place between people in true ‘word of mouth’ (e.g. over the breakfast table) style as well as in the traditional media (TV, Radio and non-New International papers).

However, new media has definitely played its part in communicating just how horrified normal people are at the underhand activities of a weekend tabloid (that seems to have more snooping resources than Mossad or MI6).
Today a sustained online campaign brought Twitter to life in a way I haven’t seen since the Royal Wedding back in April . However this action didn’t target the newspaper itself (for it seems to be in some turmoil as a consequence of an outwardly-facing PR melt-down and an internal & parliamentary witch-hunt for the head of the ex-editor and now Chief Exec of News International, Rebekah Brooks ), no this Twitter campaign went for the life-blood of the newspaper… it advertising revenue, by asking the brands that advertise in the paper to reconsider their budgets in the wake of the recent scandal.

Only time will tell if this action has any effect