I'm not at the #140conf taking place in London today, so I didn't hear this firsthand, but it's been tweeted enough by people that are there that I think we can take it as fact.

UK Twitter poster child, Stephen Fry, just said something like: "Celebrities can cut out the press from their PR. We no longer need them. Why speak to a publication with a circulation of hundreds of thousands when I can speak to millions through my keyboard?"

I imagine it's a quote that'll get replayed a fair bit. In fact, I expect a PR Week poll at any moment: "Do celebrities need the press anymore?"

With the following Fry has he can announce anything he likes through Twitter rather than take it to the media. And he's obviously such a nice, genuine bloke that we all trust him to be telling the truth (though apparently another speaker at the conference has asked, "…but what if Stephen Fry turns out to be evil?" I believe said speaker has been stoned to death for talking in such derogatory terms about a national institution.)

Not all celebrities have the following that Fry has on Twitter, but with the network effect then if the news is big enough it'll find it's way round fast enough. "But not everyone's on Twitter" I hear the naysayers cry. No, that's true. But we all love to be first to the latest news, so as well as all the retweets there'll be texts and emails and millions of chats in the hairdresser's, down the pub and over the dinner table before the knackered old wheels of the UK press start turning.

Tomorrow's news is today's chip paper.

Posted via email from markpinsent’s posterous