On January 24, 2019, my friend Jeremy Littau, a journalism professor at Leigh University, started a tweet storm of 30 or so posts that outlined an argument of why news media layoffs keep happening. Within half an hour I had read the entire thread and was absolutely blown away by his analysis. And so I shared the first post of the thread:
Must read thread on modern newspaper problems. https://t.co/LSRPE7A1GZ
— RalphIsNow@rhanson40@threads.net (@ralphehanson) January 24, 2019
I also sent Jeremy a private message asking whether I he would be willing to give me a conventional text version of this essay to post on my blog. I didn’t want to let this great piece of writing slide into Twitter oblivion.
I needn’t have worried. As the day progressed Jeremy’s Tweet storm gathered attention. He got positive mentions from NYU professor and media critic Jay Rosen:
Great thread. One thing I would add. In the 1960s newspapers reached 90% of households in some markets. By the 1990s, pre-internet, that was down to 50% or less. And yet newspaper ad rates went up, adjusted for inflation. Reaching less, yet charging more. That's monopoly pricing. https://t.co/ceHbqrw4C8
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) January 25, 2019
As well as a mention from the dean of Nevada political reporting, Jon, Ralston:
We @TheNVIndy really appreciate this shout-out. During a dark week for journalism, where so many good people lost their jobs, I really believe more than ever that our model is the wave of the future. It's not easy — far from it — but it is so worth trying. cc: @evanasmith https://t.co/BCzigA9dr0
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) January 25, 2019
Within three days, Jeremy’s Twitter thread had attracted nearly 7 million impressions, 187,000 engagements, 18,000 retweets, and more than 1,200 replies. His follower count also jumped from about 3,000 to nearly 14,000.
Within the next few days, Dr. Littau had essays at Slate and Wired based on the ideas from his tweet thread.
- Slate: The Crisis Facing American Journalism Did Not Start With the Internet
- Wired: Media’s Fatal Flaw: Ignoring the Mistakes of Newspapers
So, what did Dr. Littau have to say on Twitter that got so much attention? You can read that in his guest post here at Living in a Media World.