The battle between social networks is close and those who stay still risk falling behind and perhaps succumbing. So Twitter has decided to redesign its site, enriching it with new applications, some copied here and there, others interesting and original. Among the new features, the one that could lend a hand to traditional news organizations is the new "Discovery" section, which will send users personalized news based on where the recipient is, on the main current news that interests him and on who in particular. is following. The choice of news will not be made by a journalist, but by an algorithm able to know its users better than any editor and to send them only the messages they consider relevant to themselves.
Compared to before, it will also be possible to know more easily who is following you with a new connect tab thanks to which you will no longer run the risk of losing someone along the way.
The smartest newspapers will be able to take advantage of these innovations. Discovery will inevitably send traffic to news sites, even to stories that came out a few days earlier and that the user missed, and newspaper and agency newsrooms should make sure that the benefits don't just go to Twitter.
Some time ago, two journalists from the Associated Press were harshly reprimanded in an internal memo for having sent the news of their arrest in Zuccotti Park on Twitter, before being sent to the agency. Many pundits have noted that if the AP has a competitor that spreads news faster, then it has a problem it shouldn't overlook with internal memos barring its reporters from taking advantage of it. With the latest changes, Twitter is becoming a dangerous alternative to traditional news agencies, which should play the game, instead of watching it from the sidelines and longing for the good old days.
