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What Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey learned from journalism

By JASON COLLINGTON Web Editor on Jan 23, 2013, at 12:29 PM  Updated on 1/23 at 12:35 PM



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"I really like that model at both Twitter and Square because it allows for people with the most information around the company to bubble something up," Jack Dorsey says. Bloomberg


It's not everyday that you hear one of the world's innovators saying he looks to journalism as a model for success.

Jack Dorsey is a co-founder of Twitter and the founder of Square, the company that makes that little square device people can plug into their iPhones and instantly begin taking credit card payments. I bought all of my Girl Scout cookies from someone using one.

Near the end of a recent interview with Forbes, Dorsey, who reported for his high school newspaper, talked about how he runs Twitter and Square.

His inspiration? A newsroom.

"I really like that model at both Twitter and Square because it allows for people with the most information around the company to bubble something up," he told Forbes. "But it also allows the leaders in our company to recognize trends and intersections, and (assign) teams to those intersections."

But then he goes one step farther in two areas that are key in journalism: transparency and trust. His insistence for everyone to be on the same page at Square is why he has a rule you won't believe: "At every meeting involving more than two people, someone must take notes and send them to the entire staff."

No matter the subject, all 400 employees get an email about the meeting. So far, with dozens of websites dedicated to finding leaks in the most innovative tech companies, Square's secrets haven't found themselves on any of them.

I've never heard that kind of rule in place at either small or big businesses. But I certainly understand why he does it. Internal communication problems can be common. But I think he follows that rule because of another truth: He trusts his staff, just like any editor trusts his newsroom.
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The new tulsaworld.com redesign is a month old. What do you think?

On April 2, we launched a new look of our website with a lot of ideas from readers.

Now that we are a month into it, ...

Updates on Tulsa World redesign and iPad app

We have made a couple of adjustments to the site since we launched the new look on April 2. We appreciate the feedback and ...

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The latest version of our iPad app is now available from the App Store and it includes a popular request.

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918-581-8464
Email

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