LinkedIn: Does It Have a Future As a News Platform?
LinkedIn sometimes feels like the forgotten social media stepchild that only covers corporate America. However, the platform has recently begun expanding its news team, which begs the question, how is LinkedIn going to change the way it, as a platform, engages with the news and news media?
Well, an in-house newsroom is unusual for social media platforms that most people report getting their news from (such as Twitter or Facebook), which mostly act as conduits through which the public can pass along information (regardless of its factuality) and discuss and debate at length. An in-house newsroom containing journalists, editors, publishers, and people whose job it is to move that information, chase the truth throughout the world and share it with the public will change the shape of how news is reported on the platform.
"We have had a news team for about a decade. The bet since the beginning - and it's proven true - is that if we can have people talking about timely things, that's a great reason for people to keep coming back to the platform," Katie Carrol, Head of Industry and Creator Operations for LinkedIn, explains.
200 people now populate LinkedIn’s in-house newsroom worldwide. Carrol said that a powerful moment for how she knew the platform was needed was when COVID-19 sent most of the world’s workforce home, and people turned to LinkedIn to understand how to better manage working from home, as well as find work and other options to relieve the burden of the pandemic on their careers.
Currently, LinkedIn does a lot of reporting on itself and on corporate America, but that does not mean it will continue in that niche. In fact, as the newsroom staff has gradually grown, so has the platform’s content. The platform now produces pieces on topics as varied as climate change and legislation in addition to internal assessments and “tools and training” pieces for businesses and even aspiring journalists.
The platform has developed a slew of new tools for journalists and publishers, including a “newsletter” that is less invasive than email. Publishing a newsletter on LinkedIn will notify all of one’s followers and connections, therefore helping curate an audience and gaining resources. People will then be given the choice to subscribe to your content or not, and according to Carroll, subscriber numbers are growing fast, even for individual journalists.
Caroll also has made it a point to have contact with her creators in order to make sure LinkedIn is serving their business goals as well. The biggest challenge for journalists on LinkedIn thus far is that, while it offers plenty of opportunity to make connections, the site is not monetized. Therefore, journalists hoping to make revenue from building their community on LinkedIn will need to find a different resource to bring in money. But Linked
In bridges the gap between a journalist and their community, which is one of a journalist’s lifelines.
The most simple source of daily news on LinkedIn right now is The Daily Rundown, which presents the highlights of news for the day. However, as LinkedIn continues to grow and branch out, more specialized journalism is likely to find its niche within smaller communities. As more people with varied interests turn to the platform for information, naturally the amount of information available will grow—as may the opportunities for journalists.
