As conversations continue about old media survival, newspapers doubling down on print (while others back away as carefully as possible), and newspapers even resorting to Foursquare-style gaming structures to ensure reader returns and higher engagement, I have to love this list of the Top 25 Newspapers on Twitter. No matter where you stand on Twitter and its effect on news, this list is a pretty interesting barometer for a quick temperature-take of who’s on it (and who’s not). It’s both pleasing and saddening to see my own hometown paper low on the list, and with less followers than I have personally (I quit over their ridiculously short sighted online editorial policies a la SEO spamming). Such is the state of social connection with readership; numbers like this are starting to come off as a statement of overall health.
If you were to rank the Top 25 U.S. newspapers by Twitter followers, the order would be much different than if you were to rank them by circulation.
When it comes to Twitter followers, The New York Times is the top bird with more than 2.6 million followers. To illustrate how impressive this follower number is, The Wall Street Journal only has 464,591 followers in the #2 spot. The New York Times is the ONLY newspaper from the Top 25 with more Twitter followers than print circulation. (…)
1. @nytimes – 2,668,948
2. @wsj – 464,591
3. @washingtonpost – 204,514
4. @latimes – 83,335
5. @usatoday – 72,929
6. @newyorkpost – 57,605
7. @clevelanddotcom – 38,863
8. @chicagotribune – 34,490 *
9. @denverpost – 32,755
10. @dallas_news – 24,726(…read more, blog.journalistics.com)
Photo: Screaming Turtle by Eric Cheng.