Chad Levitt's Must have skill sets for the new world of work echoes many of the themes on Knowledge Workers.

He tops his list with Social media and Web 2.0 know how while The ability to write effectively is in second place. He finishes his list of seven items with Having a platform, which is mainly an argument in favour of running a blog.

You need to have a home base that can be indexed by Google. You need a place where you have complete editorial control. The easiest way to do this is with a blog. Blogs can launch you into some very exciting and interesting work. You need a platform.

Levitt is a salesman by trade. This shows in his focus, which is heavy on getting a high profile and less about delivering.
I'm indebted to David MacGregor who tweeted the reference to Levitt's story.

Australian journalist Renai LeMay says Twitter is journalism.

He has written on the subject on his blog and elsewhere. The best jumping off point for new readers is his Twitter’s impact on media and journalism.

LeMay is a visionary. For my money he has a great grasp of where news journalism and online media may go.

In my earlier post Can Twitter be journalism? I said I agree with him in principle. However, few twittering journos use the technology as an interactive news media.

Most use Twitter as a broadcast medium – like an RSS feed. A number have Twitter accounts, but say nothing of value. Perhaps 40 percent are serious Twitter journalists.

I may have been over optimistic with this estimate. Yesterday the Online Journalism Blog reported on how British newspapers use Twitter. In Newspapers on Twitter – how the Guardian, FT and Times are winning Malcolm Coles writes;

“newspapers have a total of 1,068,898 followers across their 120 official Twitter accounts – with the Guardian, Times and FT the only three papers in the top 10.”

This sounds encouraging. Buried further down the story is the comment:

"Out of 120 accounts, just 16 do something other than running as a glorified RSS feed. The other 114 do no retweeting, no replying to other tweets etc"

Coles also points out the newspaper sites rarely follow Twitter users.

Cluetrain barely stopped here

Both these points apply to the bulk of Twittering publications in Australian and New Zealand. My guess is managers encourage journalists to promote stories using the technology, but they are actively discouraged from replying and retweeting.

There’s a precedent for this. After all, hardly any online publications in the region link to titles owned by other publishers – which means they are missing the point of online publishing. Until publishers encourage reporters and editors to engage with their audiences, they are going to miss out on the potential of Twitter.

Of course, the journalists who do really well at this will become media brands in their own right, which will worry the bean counters. But that’s another story…

As Darryl Kerrigan says in The Castle, this is going straight to the pool room.

Pro PR Tips is straight up and down advice from a journalist to PR people. For example:

Tip #42: Restroom pitch

I was tipped off about Pro PR Tips by Simon Sharwood's JargonMaster.

What's really killing newspapers: They're no longer the best providers of social currency. – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine.

Jack Shafer believes newspapers (and for that matter talk radio stations) are dying because Facebook does a better job of providing people with social currency.