Media groups eye reporters’ Twitter fans

Twitter and other social media sites are creating new tensions in traditional newsrooms as broadcasters and newspapers grapple with individual reporters’ attempts to use the web to create a personal brand.

The question of who owns a professional Twitter or Facebook account was highlighted when Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s chief political correspondent and enthusiastic Twitter user with a loyal following of more than 60,000 people, was poached by ITV News. Within days her Twitter account’s name had switched from BBCLauraK to ITVLauraK, taking her large audience and Internet credibility with her to a rival broadcaster.