Calls about UFOs and a reporter’s plans to dress up as a giant seagull were among the tweets made by a weekly newspaper in a bid to interact with readers.
Reporters from the Hastings Observer gave their readers an insight into the average day in the office by posting details on Twitter of every phone call, visit and email they received on Monday.
And the paper gained new followers on the social networking site as journalists gave local people an insight into life at the Johnston Press title.
The paper decided to interact with local people via the Twitter name @HastingsObs to boost traffic to its new-look website, which was launched last week.
Chief reporter Richard Morris said: “I tweeted almost everything I did – including taken calls about UFOs, planning an interview with cockney gangster Dave Courtney and sorting out dressing up as a giant seagull to be mascot at the local football club.
“In fact, it is only when reading back the tweets and reader replies you realise what a varied and, it is fair to say, random job we have.
“The main reason behind it was to increase traffic to our new website but it is also a good way of presenting a public face to our readers.
“These days we only have three reporters covering a town of nearly 90,000 people so it is next to impossible to get out and meet as many people face to face as we would like.
“It is not ideal, but at least it allows us to interact. The web community is also far more ready and willing to engage with the paper than our normal readers, so doing little things like this help improve our name in the town.”
And he said the paper’s Twitter experiment may be repeated at some point in the future.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
It’s hardly a massive innovation is it – adopting a service almost every journalist worth his or her salt has been doing for several years – and then putting out a press release trumpeting their great leap forward. Good for them but if they haven’t done it before it might have been better to keep quiet about it.
Report this comment
We do use Twitter every day – have done for ages. But we don’t tweet EVERYTHING we get. We just thought it would be a nice way for our followers to see exactly what we do – warts and all.
Report this comment
Well I thought it was interesting. Some people on here will knock anything.
Report this comment
It’s a JP paper isn’t it? Don’t they have shapes to fill? Pictures to take.Pictures to put in. headlines to write. Copy to put in. Websites that look lousy and don’t work to upload. Must be busy bunnies.
Report this comment
Three reporters. One town. surely not? Doesn’t sound like JP to me.
Report this comment
why do we bother really. I spend my life on twitter searching for bits. Criminal really isn’t it.
Report this comment