A Newspaper With Friends

Posted on January 8, 2007

The Guardian's Greenslade blog reports that the Scottish Fefe Herald has launched a MySpace page to get tips from young readers.

Two enterprising and ambitious journalists with the Fife Herald - Adam Morris and Paul Breslin - have launched a MySpace page linked to their paper (circ. 13,590), which is based in the town of Cupar. In just a couple of weeks the site has recruited 400 friends and it is being used, says Morris, "as a tool to get younger folk to give us story tip offs." Two examples: a local lad took a �100 car to Italy and back; revelations of raves in "a secret bunker".
As Morris rightly notes: "It's a totally untapped market for local papers, and it opens up new lines of communication."

So far the Fife's MySpace page has 442 friends. Setting up a profile on social networks could help small local newspapers bring in more of the coveted young demographic they tend to be losing. It also appears to be help with tips for new stories that will be of interest the younger demographic.

National Geographic's Inside Traveler also has a MySpace page here (per the comments on the Greenslade post) so it may be helpful for magazines to have social networking profiles as well.