Kara Swisher, described by New York magazine as "Silicon Valley's most feared and well liked journalist", predicts that Twitter will be sold to Google, Facebook or Apple in the next six months. Speaking at the Storyology conference in Sydney on August 10th, Swisher also discussed the importance of entrepreneurialism in journalism, diversity in news media and innovation at The Washington Post, Buzzfeed and Snapchat.
On Entrepreneurialism:
If you're not an entrepreneur you shouldn't be a journalist. You have to think about the business, you have to think about the economics, you have to think about the changing ways of distribution. ... And you have to stop relying on your bosses to figure it out for you.
On Technology Trends:
The most successful companies are aimed at normal people. Something like Snapchat is very much about feelings and communications; the technology gets out of the way. [Technology] has got to be useful or entertaining; both would be great. Something like Snapchat is both and therefore is very successful among young people.
On Presentation of Stories:
You have to think about presentation and how people are getting things - people are getting things on mobile devices and you have to catch their attention. At Redcode we spend a lot of time thinking about headlines and how stories are presented. It doesn't effect the narrative of the story and it doesn't mean it has to superficial.
Listen to a podcast of Kara Swisher's talk
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Cover Image: ABC's Download This Show
