It’s the 1st of April, and as usual, the entire web has become a complete fabrication. Google’s latest prank is decidedly “Meh” compared to its usual stunts, but the Guardian has a good one: it’s going to be available via Twitter alone from now on. Not only will all new headlines be condensed to 140 characters, but all the old headlines from the archives (“OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more”) too.
A challenge for subs, and also not true, but whether intentional or not, the Guardian has hit on something here. Like any story on The Onion, the beauty of this Fool is that the trend behind it is all too real, and accelerating fast. Editor Alan Rusbridger already said the Grauniad plans to turn off the printers by 2030. Currently, the Guardian only syndicates its RSS feed via Twitter, but it’s not hard to believe that it could start tailoring its stories to the service to pick up on those crucial retweets and boost it’s authority. And not just in 21 years time, but this week.
It’s something we practice here at Republic already. We target our hottest stories and prime them up to be launched into the Twittersphere, loaded with hashtags (#apple is always a good’un) so that people beyond our followers can see the news we’re breaking. It’s not a question of will the national newspapers follow suit – just when.