Comments on: Twitter name change: @bhampostjoanna => @timesjoanna

By: Jonathan Walker

Jonathan Walker — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:50:49 +0000

Every journalists takes their contacts with them when they leave, if they can.

By: Dom Barnes

Dom Barnes — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:23:26 +0000

I guess the argument is how are you meant to just forget you know people? Would it be unethical to write down the twitter names and add them to a new account?

Its not like a sales job where you may be suspected of stealing clients. You maintaining a contact list is not going to lose any business to the Post will it?

Good decision I reckon. That mindset seems a bit like people from “old media” being a stick in the mud.

Good luck with @timesjoanna

By: Antonio

Antonio — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:30:12 +0000

I think it’s ridiculous to suggest you can’t take your contacts with you – when you start your new job are you supposed to phone up everyone you met in the last 2 years and say “sorry, I can’t talk to you any more”.

Or what you could do is organise an event where you invite them all, then pretend you don’t know them. Actually that’s a great idea – think of the fun you’d have!

By: Joanna

Joanna — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:51:52 +0000

Linda: LOL! No, you sound like someone who uses Twitter. I’m the same. Thank you for your kind words.

Sarah: Thank you too!

It is perhaps worth pointing out that The Birmingham Post have been very happy for me to retain the @bhampostjoanna account. It has been people outside our journalism that have been surprised that I am able to keep it. I shall add that to the post.

By: Sarah Vela

Sarah Vela — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:45:39 +0000

All the best to you! Great post – transparency is always the way to go. You’ve got lots of integrity.

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:40:13 +0000

Why can’t you take the contacts with you? I follow you on Twitter because your tweets are relevant, interesting, ‘human’ and warm – not because you work for the Birmingham Post. If we had met in real life at a business networking meeting, I’d still be as interested in what you had to say if you moved on to a new firm – good luck to you. I took contacts I built up at the Express & Star to find stories for a (very brief) stint at the Sunday Mercury and years later wrote about what they were up to for national publications – keep your contacts, looks to me like you know how to nurture them and treat people with good humour and respect.
And now I sound like a stalker. Shit.
All the best.