[UK] Yep. You read that right. News has broken that the BBC News’ newly appointed Social Media Editor hasn’t signed up to Twitter prior to today. In other words, he’s a newbie. As a result, let’s just say that there’s a bit of a Twitter storm brewing.
Alex Gubbay will start his new role as BBC News’ first Social Media Editor in January and will be charged with the editorial development of “user-generated content and social media initiatives across the BBC newsroom”, reports Brand Republic. To his credit, he’s currently Interactive News Editor for BBC Sport, and so, presumably, isn’t new to the social media scene as a whole, but being a late comer to Twitter doesn’t look too smart.
He’s also clearly failed at his job. Writing in May 2006 on his role as an interactive editor at BBC Sport he said:
“my role is also partly about looking longer-term and adapting our approach over time to new technology and the digital age right across all our coverage.”
So basically, although he was supposed to be looking out for trends like Twitter, he completely missed its launch until about two and a half years later when, coincidentally, he becomes head of social media and realises he doesn’t have one of the key components of the job: a twitter account.
This move also, inevitably, invites accusations of the BBC being an inward looking organisation that promotes talent within.
While it’s possible that Gubbay joined Twitter previously under a different user name, it doesn’t look like it (see Tweet below). Either way, he can now be found on Twitter (@AlexGubbay) so why not say hello.
