In what is a sop if not a total capitulation to the effect that new media has had on their business the New York Times announced the hiring of a social media editor.

From Fishbowl NY

The New York Times today announced (through Twitter and an internal memo to staffers) that Jennifer Preston would be taking over the newly created role of social media editor for the paper.

Though some critics have predicted that Preston will only be a Twitter cop for micro-blogging NYT reporters and editors, she told FishbowlNY that her job was actually going to be much more.

“I’ll be keeping everyone up to date with the rapid changes in this new medium,” Preston told us, noting that Twitter and other social media sites can be “an absolutely fabulous tool” for journalists to use. “My plan is to work closely with editors, reporters, bloggers and folks here across the newsroom to explore together how we can use these tools journalistically.”

A few hours after news broke of her appointment, Preston was introducing herself to the Twitter world. “Hi, I’m the NYT’s new social media editor…How should @nytimes be using Twitter?” she Tweeted using the handle NYT_JenPreston. “The first thing that I wanted to do on Twitter was to ask for ideas from Twitter users,” she explained.

While this should be good news to any tech savvy reader of the paper, the fact that they chose a veteran journalist who has rarely used twitter before her hiring shows the muddle-headed thinking of the Times’ management.  As the paper continues to pile up losses they embrace a fast growing technology by hiring someone unfamiliar with it.  That’s  a winning strategy.

 

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