As local news organizations begin to define the “value” of social media, many newsroom executives wonder what these accounts are actually worth to the station. And if they’re truly valuable, then who is the rightful owner: the reporter who populates the account or the newsroom that promotes it?
Tech reporter Noah Kravitz and his former employer, PhoneDog are hung up in a lawsuit to answer that very question. Kravitz changed his account name from @phonedog_noah to @noahkravitz when he left PhoneDog to work for a competitor. PhoneDog currently has no access to the account or its 21,000 followers.
Regardless if you side with Kravitz or PhoneDog in this debate, I think we can all agree it’s better to avoid the situation altogether. The best way to do that is to clearly define ownership before it is ever questioned. But if an account is clearly owned by the reporter, should the TV station promote it? Is it good business for TV stations to help TV talent build valuable accounts which will go right out the door when they do? Here’s my take (feel free to disagree):
If the reporter’s personal account has relatively few fans/followers, it’s almost always in the TV station’s best interest to avoid promoting it and instead, ask the reporter to create (and use) a professional account owned by the station. Here’s why:
1. Regardless of how hard the reporter tries, using a mediocre personal social account to promote a newscast isn’t going to make a dent in ratings or page views. And it won’t produce story ideas, feedback or engagement until more people connect with the account.