NewsCloud requiem – "Social Media Technology Fails to Save News Organizations from Themselves"

In December 2009, NewsCloud received a $249,942 grant from the Knight Foundation to work with twelve news organizations to help them launch interactive community sites based on our open source Facebook technology. In its final report form, the foundation asks, “What headline best summarizes the single most important outcome of your work?” Sadly, “Social Media Technology Fails to Save News Organizations from Themselves” is my response.

We’ve been told that the lessons we’ve learned about how to work with media organizations in the age of social media are the most valuable outcome of this project. It’s for this reason that we think it’s important to be open about our successes and failures.