Liz Heron, head of social media at the "New York Times", has resigned and moved to the "Wall Street Journal". Things like this happen often, and there would be no reason to worry too much about it. But the fact is that the "New York Times" is having a hard time finding a replacement among its 1000 journalists. So he's looking for it outside, among thousands of brilliant young people who know everything about Twitter and Facebook, but are not journalists.
In its small way, this is also a turning point. Among the editors of the "Times" who seemed suitable for the role, there was not one who accepted it: partly because the qualification of Social Media Editor still does not make a good impression on a business card, but above all because nobody wants to spending hours listening to people's chatter when there's so much serious work to be done in the newsroom.
Liz Heron has been trying for months to inculcate a new culture in the sectors, which takes into account the enormous possibilities offered to a traditional newspaper by thousands of people willing to tell stories (not always only their own) and to bear witness to events. But she had little success and she decided to go where these things believe more: Rupert Murdoch's "Wall Street Journal" has a larger section of Social Media and is planning to further increase its staff. In the print world, when a really good journalist leaves one paper for another, he always takes a handful of readers with him.
In the world of social networks things go differently: Heron has 320 subscribers to his Facebook page, who will now follow him to the "Wall Street Journal", with interesting implications for anyone studying the transmigration of readers in the Internet age.
The world is changing and even the journalists of the "New York Times" find it hard to notice. They still dream of being sent as envoys perhaps to Africa and ignore the fact that, by the time it took them to pack their suitcases, the video by the Invisible Children volunteer association of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony's child army was was viewed by 90 million people on Youtube, unleashing a wave of global indignation that no newspaper alone could have caused. Okay, it's not the same thing and you shouldn't believe everything you see or read online. But from a well-organized Social Media sector, led by motivated people and in constant contact with the editorial staff, only good can come for the future of newspapers.
