Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has taken in Liz Heron, an editor at the Wall Street Journal to strengthen its news segment. Heron, in a Facebook post, revealed that she is leaving WSJ to join Facebook. Heron is thoroughly experienced in journalism and has worked with brands like The Washington Post and The New York Times previously.
Heron posted that she is excited to take the new job in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which “is putting a big emphasis on news and mobile, two things close to my professional heart.”
Heron excited to join Facebook
Heron said that she has worked in the field of journalism for firms like The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and has witnessed the transformation of social media and the web. In the post, she mentions that it is fascinating for her to approach “newsgathering and the storytelling from a new vantage point.”
Quoting one of her friends, Allison Lichter, Social Media Editor at WSJ, Heron says that Facebook has an incredible, massive database of human experience. “There’s so much news to be found here, sources to be developed, meaningful communities for journalists to build and experiments to be tried. Journalists — feel free to hit me up with your ideas”!
Addressing to her friends and colleagues at the WSJ, she says that the journalism makes everyone smarter and more informed. She thanked her team members and colleagues for their support at the WSJ. From Superstorm Sandy to the 2012 elections to major tech IPOs to the Boston Bombing she along with her team made social media sourcing/verification and reader participation a vital part of a news report. She also said that her team has leaped forward in shareable “visual storytelling, built a global social media presence, experimented with news startups, and raised the profile of mobile journalism around our newsroom.”
Twitter hired for a similar role
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) hiring come a few months after rival Twitter filled a similar post with NBS’s Vivian Schiller, who joined as the head of new partnership. At Twitter, Schiller serves as a liaison between Twitter and news organizations, which use the service to spread news and information.
Data from Pew Research Center stated that 50% of Americans now prefer the internet to read news, and around 20% of them use social network for news, based on data collected in 2012.
