While many other media organizations have gotten rid of their reader comments, including Reuters and Bloomberg, the New York Times says it plans to expand its commenting features and invest more resources in them because they help create a valuable relationship with readers
Guardian digital editor and former New York Times staffer Aron Pilhofer says media outlets are making a monumental mistake by ending comments, instead of focusing on how they can use them to build a true community and two-way relationship with their readers
As Medium founder and former Twitter CEO Evan Williams points out in a recent post, there is still far too much obsession with metrics like pageviews and unique visitors instead of looking at ways of measuring real engagement by readers
Many media sites are deciding to shut down reader comments because they have become troll and spam-filled cesspools — but why not show how much you value readers by spending the time to improve your comment section?
A survey done by the commenting platform Disqus shows that readers see comments posted by those using pseudonyms as being just as trustworthy as those using real names
De Correspondent, the Dutch crowdfunding success story, has built a $2-million base of subscribers in just a year — and it has also learned a lot about how being open with readers and seeing them as partners can change the way that journalism works
The New York Times has been criticized because some of its senior editors and writers — including its executive editor — don’t use Twitter. That may seem trivial to some, but it is also an indication of what could be a much larger problem
Many media outlets seem to believe that by forcing readers to use their real identities, they will solve the problem of bad comments — but in reality, all they are doing is making it less likely that most of their readers will ever respond to their content
Many journalists probably see Reddit as an internet sideshow filled with nerds discussing video games, but GM Erik Martin makes the point that it’s also a great way to find people who care about the stories journalists are writing about, and that’s a useful resource
The 97-page internal report on what the New York Times needs to do online contains many things of value, but it glosses over one important point: the way the NYT does journalism has to change, not just how it is promoted or displayed
