Influencers replacing hacks and artists.

The buzz-word “influencers” becomes journalese when it is used in a Boston Globe page one print headline, Dec. 26, 2019, reading: “HUNTER, GATHERER, INFLUENCER” with subhead, “Once a vegan, he’s prepped to become Internet’s evangelist for primitive eating.” The story, datelined Bridgton, Maine, ledes with: “Daniel Vitalis, who was once a big influencer in the raw-food vegan movement and is angling to become an even bigger one in the modern hunter-gathering movement, was crunching through the Maine woods on a recent morning, rifle in hand, looking for a squirrel to kill for lunch.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/12/25/the-hunter-gatherer-instagram/SlBnwXCgV52Zd0NYTAgzBI/story.html

Back a while, an “influencer” was a flack, or an artist with a specific verbal talent.

File under: There’s enough squirrels on Boston Common for the Globe’s influencer to feed half of Maine.