WSJ’s Kara Swisher joins the conversation, how will traditional media adopt the live web?

Categories: Web IndustryPosted on October 28th, 2007

I’m becoming a fan of Kara Swisher, who writes Boomtown. She’s a case study of how traditional newspapers (Wall Street Journal) have embraced social media. I see a lot of other newspapers who use blogs and podcasts and rss, yet they don’t really engage and be part of the experience of social media –they just report on it. It’s more than being an embedded reporter, she’s interacting with the ecosystem, I’ve been noticing this more and more.

Kara’s blog posts are punchy and stir up the issues, her videos irreverent, she keeps them fast, brings us the experience and pushes her interviewers with challenging, and sometimes almost leading questions. In many ways she’s picking up on Scoble’s beat, by bringing a first person human look to the industry.

I’d be interesting to see how other large newspapers (who are having a hard time staying relevant from the internet and the changes it’s brought) adopt and try to learn from her. Likely there will be some Kara copy cats, but I think she’ll innovate.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 10:46 am and is filed under Web Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Welcome to the Kara Swisher fan club. My question: Kara’s beat gives her a natural affinity to live web and social media. She covers it. She should be using it. But how easily will Journalists on non-tech subjects adopt these tools?

Posted by Michael Markman on October 28th, 2007 at 11:28 am

First question is: Should they?

Kara may be a special case, assigned not only to be ‘embedded’ but to also use the tools and be part of the experience.

Either way, she’s doing it right and others will copy.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 28th, 2007 at 11:30 am

Part 2: I wonder how ‘engaged’ she really is, let’s see how long it takes her to respond and leave a comment

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 28th, 2007 at 11:32 am

Engaged? I am committed!

How long? Give me a real challenge, boys!

Posted by Kara Swisher on October 28th, 2007 at 10:47 pm

BTW, no one “assigned” me! I assigned myself!

That’s how we innovators operate.

And Scoble is my anti-hero! (See my videos; in the last episode, he was very naughty to BoomTown.)

Posted by Kara Swisher on October 28th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

Nice, Kara

I knew you’d be here. Robert naughty? now I need to see that video.

Good stuff.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 28th, 2007 at 11:12 pm

Kara fits right in — look how well — Scoble-like– she pats herself on the back ; >

Posted by joesmith on October 29th, 2007 at 10:58 am

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