Why Comments Matter

Recently Douglas Bailey, President of DBMediaStrategies, published an opinion piece on Boston.com (Boston Globe) titled “Got a comment? Keep it to yourself” suggesting we abandon comment forums at the end of articles on newspaper websites.  I encourage you to read the full article and judge for yourself. Frankly, it was a challenge for me to pull one single quote from Baily’s opinion article that wasn’t insidious:

In several blog posts, Fred Wilson, managing Partner of two venture capital firms, Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures, and well respected blogger, advocated for engagement and “tending to comment threads” by offering a number of sensible proposed solutions on how Douglass and other journalists (and newspapers) could actively engage users in comments.

Fred Wilson Why Comments Matter:

It’s an issue for the news industry because tending to comment threads is not part of a journalist’s traditional job. But I would argue that it is now and they ought to get busy doing it. For one, the journalists that do it and do it well will be better read. And they’ll be better informed. They’ll get tips in the comment threads. They’ll get constructive criticism that will help them do their job better. And they’ll get leads on new stories before others will. – Fred Wilson.

In a response Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner, and opinion editor on economics and politics for the New York Times responded to Wilson with the following message.

In a second post Comments – A Follow Up Wilson responded to Krugman:

Paul Krugman gets 1200 or more comments to his opinion pieces. First of all, that’s great to see. That is a celebration of free speech, political discourse, and the power of the Internet to be the modern day coffee house. Second of all, I’ll be the first one to acknowledge that no author, no matter who they are, can really do justice to 1200 comments on each piece they write. – Fred Wilson.

Simply put, comparing 60-100 comments, as in the case of Fred Wilson’s blog, to 1000 or more on many of the published articles on the New York Times is apples to oranges. But what is the cost of not engaging the user? At the very least, it’s a disconnecting experience to the user when the primary author does not participate. Which raises the question. Is a news article published online an open discussion?

The system of delivering the news evolves, the way in which we consume, share, and discuss online news changes. Comments on news articles are important, as Wilson stated. Perhaps comments are ancillary to the information in the published article, other times, comments augment online articles. But there is no denying the fact that comments are precisely the place where the audience is most actively engaged, on either side of the fence.

Comments are open on most online versions of newspapers, they have been for a long time. Newspapers made that decision. As a result, authors have no choice but to engage the reader. However, this doesn’t address the inherent challenge and complexity that comes with user engagement and moderation on published news items, in this case, on the website of the New York Times.

Managing AVC.com is a different business than managing a newspaper – print and online. Perhaps there are a few, if any hard deadlines on Wilson’s AVC blog, and certainly not in the traditional sense of newspaper publishing deadlines both print and online. That position affords Wilson the flexibility and time to respond to his readers’ comments and provide on-going feedback.

From my own personal experience, I agree with Wilson, tending to comments can be done, interns perhaps, not my first choice, but engagement and participation with comments and moderation can be done at a relatively low cost. I work for a large entertainment company, holding a number of brands delivering content to multiple (and divergent) demographics, all with continuous on-air calls to action to participate and discuss online. As a result we receive a high volume of online UGC content.

Let’s just focus on text – comments on blog posts, video comments, text on community profiles  etc… Both user engagement and moderation exists on multiple levels including participation from the primary author in the form of comments, to freelancers and interns servicing layers of moderation and enforcing terms of use. Not withstanding of course, the community doing a fairly good job of policing itself.

Additionally there are a number of third party companies that offer moderation services – if needed. This approach allows the primary author to engage, which should be part of their job description, but leaves moderation to a third party. This multilayered approach is standard practice now with most new media businesses, and it works, even when receiving a significantly higher number of comments than 1200.