Newspaper asks for applications via tweets

This is a good example to highlight how deeply the influence of new media goes - a newspaper insisted all job applications for a journalism post came via twitter, not the usual posted CVs/letters!

SOURCE: Roy Greenslade, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/sep/12/northcliffe-media-twitter 12.9.11

Want a reporting job? Then get tweeting...

If you want a job with one of Northcliffe Media's papers in the south east you'll need to get tweeting.
Alan Geere, one of the publisher's executives, posted an advert for reporters this morning in which he stated that applicants must reply via Twitter.
Geere, editor-in-chief of the Essex Chronicle group and editorial director of Northcliffe's south east division, explains why in his blog:

"I'm fed up wading through turgid 'letters of application' and monstrous CVs outlining an early career in retail handling and a flirtation with the upper slopes of the Andes.
I want reporters who can find stories that no-one else has got and write them quickly and accurately.
That's why in my latest recruitment ad potential recruits have to respond via Twitter. They've got 140 characters to tell me what they can do and why I should consider them."

So people eager to join one of his papers - whether at trainee or senior level, full time or part time (see list of papers) - have a week to craft a 140-character application.
Geere writes waspishly: "I keep getting told there is an over-supply of qualified people wanting to do journalism. Well, maybe there is but there's definitely not an over-supply of people who are any good."
Now that's what I call a challenge.
Source: Private communication