What's wrong with WSJ social media rules

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 19

I was running around Europe last week and missed the news about the Wall Street Journal’s new social media guidelines. Now I’ve read them, along with critical responses from Fred Wilson and Jeff Jarvis, just a couple points of my own.

First, I break a good number of these rules. I friend a few sources, I discuss the reporting process, blog about meetings and the editorial process and, occasionally, the interviews I do. However, for certain types of stories, I would hew to the Journal’s rules carefully.

The key is to have a feeling for when to be secretive and when to open up the process. An investigative story about what appears to be corruption at a government agency? Shhhh. A personal business story about the best restaurants in South Florida? Blab about it, and get ideas. If someone “scoops” that story, it doesn’t make much difference. It could even be linked to.

For rules to work, they have be flexible. This means trusting the judgment of staffers. Otherwise media companies risk closing themselves into a small and dark space.

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