Ah, the joys of new media in the news media.
While The Washington Times was busy laying off a large chunk of its editorial staffers last week — including the entire sports section — it overlooked getting control of the sports section’s Twitter account.
Now it’s taken on a life of its own.
“It’s official @TWTSports got Mike Leach’d,” a sports staffer Tweeted last Wednesday, referring to the recently fired Texas Tech football coach.
“True story: With the ‘you’re getting fired’ packet, @washtimes was kind enough to give a PINK sheet of paper with open jobs to apply for,” the next tweet said.
We’re told using Twitter wasn’t mandated by higher-ups at the paper, so they most likely don’t have a password for the sports Twitter account.
The Web-savvy ex-staffers also changed their Twitter account’s icon to accurately “reflect current events.” The word FIRED is now stamped over the Times’ sports logo.
Besides giving candid information about the layoffs, the posts are promoting new blogs and projects by ex-staffers.
“Personally, I think it’s pretty cool they kept Tweeting even after we were laid off,” former staffer Tim Lemke said via e-mail. “They used it to [publicize] a few of our personal blogs and it’s been a nice way for us to hear feedback and reaction from people.”
They’ve also used it to dig at their former employer.
“Right now @washtimes has 2 wire stories on front of home page AND the latest Redskins blog post. Weren’t they ditching sports?” a tweet said Saturday. The final Washington Times sports section was published Friday.
A Times spokesman said he wouldn’t comment on Twitter accounts.
