Thursday, July 02, 2009
Can any modern news publishing business justify banning its staff from accessing social networking sites? While many national and regional newspapers have now reversed earlier decisions to ban workplace access to time-sapping Facebook—Johnston Press has set the clock back to 2007 and informed staff at The Scotsman and its other Edinburgh papers that Facebook is banned except in special cases. In a memo, (via Allmediascotland), JP management warn reporters that “a recent review” found more than half of the company’s entire outbound traffic is to Facebook so it has no choice but it stop people visiting. the Memo reads: “Journalists who require access should seek approval from their departmental head, who should contact the Group Helpdesk to have the permission restored.”
Just like Friends Reunited before it, Facebook has become a standard reporting tool for many local and regional reporters—one JP journalist told me recently they couldn’t imagine working without it. And that’s not to mention the many titles that use Facebook pages to promote their own coverage and connect with readers. JP’s own Yorkshire Evening Post page (pictured), for example, sends out messages via Facebook and has recently been suggesting that FB followers become friends with a new series of local sites, which now have their own FB pages. Will whoever is responsible for this have to get departmental consent every time they update those pages?
Source: Welcome To 2007: Johnston Press Bans Facebook, Patrick Smith Jul 1, 2009. http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-welcome-to-2007-johnston-press-bans-facebook/