What's the Buzz: Twitter Indifference; Anderson’s Anti-news Views

By Hannah Johnson

The latest stories that have everyone atwitter in the social media-o-sphere…

Why do we even care about Twitter? According to a Harris Interactive study (via Mashable), 69% of adults have no opinion about Twitter because they don’t know enough about it. A now infamous 15-year-old intern at Morgan Stanley said that “teenagers don’t use Twitter” either. So why bother to start now? (Still, Publishing Perspectives loves Twitter, so keep the tweets, retweets and general twitteriness coming!).

Speaking of news, many Twitterers thought Chris Anderson nicely summed up his interview with Der Spiegel about the future of media with his very first answer: “This is going to be a very annoying interview. I don’t use the word journalism.” Anderson also doesn’t use the words “news” or “media” either. While readers understood and even appreciated his arguments, the title of the article, “Maybe Media Will Be a Hobby Rather Than a Job” led one person to suggest that Anderson shouldn’t get paid for his “hobby” either.

And from the blogs, we found out that Bowker just issued a press release concerning their bookselling demographics report, which includes a few tantalizing statistics (via Teleread). Surprisingly, only 30% of Generation X reported buying their books online, while men account for 55% of ebook purchases. Should we expect to see male-targeted ebook websites soon?

About the Author

Hannah Johnson

Hannah Johnson is the publisher of international book industry magazine Publishing Perspectives, which provides daily information and news about book markets around the world. In addition to building partnerships with international cultural and trade organizations, she works with the Frankfurt Book Fair to organize and support a number of its overseas initiatives. Hannah has also worked as the managing editor for an online media company, The Hooch Life, focused on craft distillers and cocktail experts. Prior to that, she worked as a project manager for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office, managing various business and marketing activities.