Social Media, the New Press Release

By: Robinson Meyer | The Atlantic

In 1928, The New York Times installed a news ticker on the side of its building. The prologue to today’s TV news tickers, the Times called it a “zipper” and displayed the headlines of the day on it.

A few years later, it was gone. Today, the ticker has returned—though in a very different form. Last week, the Times debuted “Watching,” a live news feed on the news organization’s homepage.