NYT Twitter account followers add up to 16 times the circulation of the paper
Bill Keller’s gone-but-cosmically-cached Twitter rant is even more surprising when you consider that The New York Times is arguably the most active media outlet in the world on the platform, and you don’t have to take my word for it.
Kicking around the paper’s website this morning I found this amazing page, a well-designed and functional compilation of active NYT journalist and newsroom accounts on Twitter. When it comes to math, I’m no S&P, but by my count the page lists 267 individual feeds, with more than 14 million combined followers. […]
That’s about 16 times the paper’s daily circulation, and more than 10 times that of the vaunted Sunday edition.
The NYT’s follower counts are almost certainly inflated by duplicates and zombie accounts, so the real ratios are likely lower. But I have no doubt that Twitter is a huge traffic generator and distribution platform for the NYT.
I think in practice, the NYT really does value Twitter — the newsroom and tech team especially. But that just makes Keller’s rant seem even sillier and more out of touch.
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