188-year-old paper goes Twitter-only. Sault Star to follow?

Arguing that any news story can be told in 140 characters or less, England's venerable Guardian newspaper has announced tonight that it will no longer publish on paper, distributing its news instead via Twitter, the popular social networking website.

For weeks, rumours have circulated that the Sault Star, pressed hard by local online news outlets, may also consider switching from newsprint to 'tweets,' SooToday.com has learned.

"As a Twitter-only publication, the Guardian will be able to harness the unprecedented newsgathering power of the [Twitter] service, demonstrated recently when a passenger on a plane that crashed outside Denver was able to send real-time updates on the story as it developed, as did those witnessing an emergency landing on New York's Hudson River," the Guardian says in a story published under tomorrow's date.

"It has also radically democratized news publishing, enabling anyone with an Internet connection to tell the world when they are feeling sad, or thinking about having a cup of tea," the newspaper said.

The Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 after the pro-worker Manchester Observer was ordered closed by the government.

The new paper promised then to "zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious liberty... warmly advocate the cause of reform... endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of political economy and ... support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures."

The Sault Star has capably served this community with a paper edition for more than a century.

Sault This Week is in its third decade of publication.

Twitter postings are limited to 140 characters each, but the Guardian's editors are convinced that any story can be reduced to that, if unnecessary verbiage is eliminated.

For example, Martin Luther King's 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial is far more eloquent in its Twitter version: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by"

This, the Guardian says, nicely eliminates "the waffle and bluster of the original."

If Charles Lindbergh arrived today in Paris, here's how the story would appear on the Guardian's Twitter feed: "OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise *sigh*"

The Guardian also provided another example of how a famous news item from 1940 would appear on its vastly superior Twitter service: "W Churchill giving speech NOW - 'we shall fight on the beaches ... we shall never surrender' check YouTube later for the rest."

If and when the Sault Star goes Twitter-only, local sister publication Sault This Week will almost certainly follow suit, Executive Editor Paul Sandra said.

SooToday.com encourages our readers to discuss the implications of Twitter-only newspapers, using the News Response forum on our Editorials page and the poll at the bottom of our home page.

To read other important news published under tomorrow's date, please click here.