Breaking news to an online community is difficult. If it is a hot story, a citizen journalist (aka blogger) may beat you to the punch. CNN is choosing to work with the online trendsetters rather than against them.
Josh Bancroft twittered this week that CNN had begun using the service to break news. I immediately added CNN as a contact and after 2 or 3 stories I heard nothing else from them. I assumed they were done with it. However, today, just 15 mins ago actually, I saw this message:
It appears they are not listing all the news, only actual ‘breaking news’ as the name implies. I’m very impressed to see they not only are using the service, but are actually only posting worthy stories. Kudos to CNN for embracing this new messaging system. To read their story on the shocking Colorado avalanche, visit their site. To add me to your twitter visit my twitter profile.
Actually, Robyn, I learned after I put up initial post that it’s not CNN doing this, but someone using the Twitter API to plug in CNN’s Breaking News emails.
http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2007/01/cnn-is-using-twitter-to-deliver-breaking-news/
Still an awesome idea, though – that’s how I learned about the avalanche, and I would definitely like to keep getting that kind of breaking news alert via Twitter.
Oops, well as you said, still very smart. I love it when companies release their APIs. Passionate users come up with great ideas to extend a product.