While it was Kara Swisher who first published the news about the sale of paidContent to the Guardian early on Friday morning, super blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick added confirming comments by uncovering a Twitter post and reply between two senior Guardian editors. Marshall took the "Tweets" as a confirmation of the deal.
For more journalists, Twitter has become a sort of "canary in the coal mine," as Jeff Jarvis says in this segment from BigThink, which I’ve posted above.
So, how did Marshall, sitting in his home office in Portland,
Oregon, find this tiny kernel in millions of Tweets? Well, Marshall,
a featured blogger for Read/Write/Web and a former TechCrunch staffer, tells me he was sent the "Tweet" by one of his
"followers" who was a friend of the Guardian editor.
Marshall tells me that his following of over 3000 on Twitter has created
a powerful network to source stories. In fact, he posted on his
personal blog that Twitter pays his rent and that nearly half of his story leads bubble up through Twitter.
So, the takeaway here is build a network and encourage them to send
direct Tweets. But remember, Twitter is largely public, so watch what
you say about inside information!
Oh, and hey, if you have any scoops — send me a Tweet!
Update: The New York Times reports about U.S. Congressmen "Tweeting" and fighting to be able to continue.
— Andy Plesser
