Twitterverse: Layoffs at NPR

Twitter's themediaisdying reported that NPR laid off 65 people by the end of the day today, and here it is documented on the site via The Editorialiste's Twitter feed:



Thirty-four staffers were cut from news, but no cuts were made to digital media staffers, according to the report.

Either way, it's strange to see it happen in real time -- notice in the picture that the updates were just a minute apart.

A sad, sad day.

The Editorialiste, Now 'A-Twitter.'

I've always told myself that I wouldn't Twitter, because I don't find it a productive use of my time (or interesting, for that matter) to gab about where I am in the world.

However, after thinking about it and having received several invites from Twittering friends, I've decided to sign up. The reason? So that I could post my favorite quotes from the news I read everyday.

Those close to me know that I regularly post to my away message on certain online accounts what I deem as memorable quotes that I read in the news. (Today's example: "If I had beaten the old man, you would never have heard of the kid and then we wouldn’t be in this mess," from a Katie Couric interview with Michael Dukakis). I've decided to expand my audience, since I believe these quotes are at the heart of the journalism we practice: concise, vivid accounts of the world around us.

If you'd like to follow The Ed. on Twitter, I'd be honored to have your eyeballs, albeit for five seconds a day:

http://twitter.com/editorialiste

(Also: Great interview on I Want Media with the Twitter CEO about the role of traditional journalism and Twitter.)