BNO News to charge for wire service

The new service will reportedly target media organisations to sign up, amidst a growing interest and respect for social networks as news sources within the industry. BNO News has even announced Msnbc.com as its first subscriber.

According to paidContent`s Rafat Ali, however, Msnbc.com will not be a client for long, having been requested to manage the news wire. A BNO News press release said that as of early December "MSNBC.com has agreed to manage @BreakingNews and will continue to provide a 24/7 up-to-the-second feed of breaking news headlines via the Twitter account.

"This collaboration adds BNO News' wire service to msnbc.com's already robust news-gathering operation and means followers of @BreakingNews will continue to receive the timely news and updates they expect.

The deal appears to benefit both sides, Msnbc.com curently only has 41,500 followers of its @msnbc_breaking Twitter account, so taking control of @BreakingNews will be a significant boost in numbers. Likewise, the agreement allows van Poppel and his team to focus their attention on developing other products by relinquishing the reponsibility of updating the service.   

The rising interest in van Poppel's service comes at a time when one of the world's largest traditional news wires, the Associated Press is being forced to make cutbacks, annoucing that 90 staff worldwide would be laid off last week.

The service is also facing threats of cancellation by many of its current subscribers, as news organisations across the globe search for ways to tighten their belts in tough financial times for the industry. Some have even alredy begun trials to report without the service.

BNO News' wire could be a worthwhile option for newspapers to consider. Robin Wauters of TechCrunch, has previously said that BNO reports on the same events as the mainstream media, but usually faster and provides "more context with relevant text messages and links about the topic right after posting the actual breaking news."

In addition, they use a "more efficient processing system in combination with an extensive monitoring platform that digs up fresh news items almost as they happen."  

As many organisations begin to appoint social media editors and create posts such as 'Twitter correspondents', subscribing to a breaking news citizen journalism feed would not be such a stretch, depending on the cost of the service.

Source : WebNewser, paidContent