At Mountain Xpress, we’re taking April Fool’s Day off, in a manner of speaking. Which is to say that everything we’re reporting today is (to the best of our knowledge) true. Of course, that wasn’t the case last year.
Some readers will recall that we took full advantage of the day: On April 1, 2009, we announced on this Web site that we were suspending our print publication, and would henceforth be an online-only operation. What’s more, we claimed, we were converting the site’s content entirely to Twitter reports.
Hence, the Twitter-powered newspaper — aka “The Twaper” — was born, and it lived throughout the day, baffling some readers, disturbing others, and causing some to chuckle. At the end of the day, we explained the hoax — and asserted that the Twaper wasn’t just a joke: It was, we argued, something of an experiment on the growing power and range of citizen-reported news.
So no jokes this year — we’ll just bask in the faded glory of our Twaper, and note its first anniversary with a digital trip down memory lane:
• Click here for Publisher Jeff Fobes’ “Twitter Manifesto,” issued April 1, 1009.
• Click here for the definition of Twaper in the Urban Dictionary.
• Here’s a WLOS-TV spot on the Twaper, courtesy AskAsheville:
— Jon Elliston, managing editor
