Online Journalism News

Twitter news channel plans online expansion

Since it sold unpublished video footage of Osama bin Laden to the news media in 2007, Twitter service BreakingNewsOn (BNO News) has changed from a part-time news aggregator to a reputable news source.

The service has become known for breaking news before it hits the traditional wires and had 22,979 followers at the time of writing.

The immediacy and growing popularity of Twitter has been a crucial part of BNO's success, factors which founder Michael van Poppel hopes to replicate in a new website, planned to launch in late February or March.

From the start, BNO has seen itself as part of the media landscape, co-existing with other news organisations.

"I began to realize that (...) there is the potential to scoop the news agencies when doing it right. But you also have to be realistic because you can't always be first. You can't be everywhere on the world at the same time, neither can CNN, the Associated Press or any other news agency. No matter how many reporters," van Poppel tells Journalism.co.uk.

"Because of this, I thought it is not only important to gather your own (breaking) news, it is also important to monitor other news agencies, other websites and local, national and international TV reports."

The new website will expand BNO's newsgathering approach, which combines original reporting with automated news aggregation, including monitoring 'emergency scanner traffic' from the US and tracking news wires and other media outlets.

"WhileTwitter's great to send out short news alerts, it has no realistic future for a full staffed, 24/7 company," says van Poppel.

Instead, Twitter alerts will now become the first part in the storytelling process, providing an initial alert and a follow-up link to more reports on the BNO site.

New, more specific news accounts, on European news and weather, for example, will also be added as part of the launch, which will have a news wire appearance focusing only on breaking stories, says van Poppel.

The urgency of news alerts will be clearly labelled on the site using the same tags of 'developing', 'urgent' and 'flash', a system which has only been used four times to date - for historically signficant news stories on @BreakingNewsOn.

Next to this wire service, there will be a list of the day's top breaking news, adds van Poppel, in a design he hopes will appeal to everyone, not just journalists and news junkies.

RSS feeds, email alerts, compatibility with instant messaging platforms and SMS alerts are also in the pipeline, says van Poppel.

To support its expansion, BNO is still seeking investors, but is considering allowing advertising on the new site, as well as small fees for mobile updates.

Yet despite these developments and plans to recruit new staff for the website, the model for breaking news will not change, says van Poppel.

"Users should not expect a traditional news site with in-depth background information and every news item on what happened during the day. A news story on Obama's first week in office might be interesting, but it won't find a mention on BNO News," he explains.

"Our staff will continue throughout the day to update on situations and news stories we are monitoring. This means a small part of our news stories may never make national or international news because the initial reporting suggested a potential breaking news story.

"Our staff will be reporting on breaking news situations very early and we believe this is breaking news as it should be. Breaking news is potential major news with details still coming in - it's not the evening news."

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