Image: ITV News

A week after ITV News launched its social media strategy, the editor of the News at Ten has questioned the need for news channels when breaking news is distributed through the internet and Twitter.

Jason Mills, who is leading ITV News' move into social networking, said that they were developing a four-pronged web-strategy that will include the website, Facebook, Twitter and a YouTube channel. He asked why they would want a news channel when people can get the latest news from them via the internet.

"Do you sit at home watching news channels?" asked Mills. "No. Having a website is more important than a news channel. Why would you want a news channel?"

ITV News presenters and correspondents started tweeting last Monday as part of a brand re-launch with the tag line "Bringing the facts to life." A Facebook page has been created, with a YouTube channel and new-look website planned for the new year.

Mills said that the web strategy is important in reaching viewers outside of the four main bulletins. ITV News closed its 24 hour news channel in 2005.

"My own personal belief is that people don’t want news when you give it to them now," he said. "They want to be part of the newsgathering process, they want to be able to comment on it and they want to get it when they want it.

"The internet allows us to talk to viewers outside of the traditional bulletins. Twitter is useful for us in giving us the chance to put news out there before our bulletins."

He highlighted the example of International Editor Bill Neely who has been tweeting from Afghanistan. His coverage of the death of five British soldiers last week was picked up by other news sources.

ITV News International Editor Bill Neely has been tweeting from Afghanistan. Image: Twitter screenshot

"There are not many people who are able to tweet from Kabul and he had some good lines in relation to the deaths," said Mills. "It helped to exploit us before our bulletins at 6:30 and 10 o'clock at night. It was good for us."

Mills said that the social media launch is hopefully just the start for ITV News. "We're initially starting small, but eventually who knows where this will go. Five years ago we had not heard of Facebook or Twitter. It might be that at some stage it becomes vital for a bulletin," he said.

ITV News has appointed a web producer to run its new strategy and staff are being invited to train on how to use Twitter.

Mills said, "Tweeting is pretty simple, if you can use a mobile phone you can tweet, so the training is not that difficult. We have only been doing it with correspondents who have come forward and say they would like to do this. We are growing it organically.

"We have produced some advisory notes reminding people of how tweets might be perceived. The only real guideline that I would stress is that we are only tweeting what is broadcastable. It is important that we have the same standards of accuracy on Twitter as we would in our bulletins."

ITV News presenters, including News at Ten anchor Julie Etchingham (right), have started tweeting as part of a 'brand-alignment' (Photo: ITV)

The new-look ITV News is using Twitter and Facebook as part of its attempt to put 'human experiences at the heart of their news coverage'. ITV News revealed new titles and a new set yesterday alongside a promotional campaign using the tag-line 'Bringing the facts to life.'

ITV News editor Deborah Turness wrote: "Putting real, human experience at the heart of what we do helps connect the viewer to otherwise seemingly distant national and international news events. It has been a long, proud tradition over decades to deliver stories that reach out and touch people, news that has the power to make them stop, watch and think. Now we have a set and a title sequence that reflects and embodies our USP."

The most talked about change has been the removal of Big Ben from the News at Ten titles after ITV executives decided the imagery was too London-centric. However, another interesting development has been ITV News' jump into the world of social media. Correspondents now have individual twitter accounts, alongside an overall ITV News account and a Facebook page.

Several members of the ITV News team were already using Twitter - Angus Walker started tweeting in July 2008 - but now at least 10 correspondents, including News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham, have accounts with co-ordinated ITV News branded backgrounds. Unlike other news organisations, the tweeting seems a very top-down initiative - despite now having accounts, James Mates and Tim Ewart are still yet to tweet at all. However, News at Ten's editor yesterday afternoon tweeted, "getting inundated with the number of itv correspondents now wanting to twitter!"

So far the team's tweets have largely been teasers trailing reports to be screened on TV, although yesterday we did learn that strangely ITV News had bought the Rooney's newborn baby an adult-size Liverpool shirt with his name on. The new Twitter users are yet to build up large numbers of followers - News at Ten anchor Etchingham only has 21 - but their tweets are being regularly re-tweeted by colleagues and the overall ITV News account, as well as being aggregated using the new Lists feature.

On Facebook, ITV News launched a fan page on Monday. It has been a slow start with no comments as yet on the discussion topic about childhood obesity, but to their credit when the changes to News at Ten were criticised on the fan page, ITV News did respond.

UPDATE 04/11/09: ITV News editor Deborah Turness this morning sent an all staff e-mail to highlight this blog post