Church of the Customer Blog
« Shutting the door to word of mouth | Main | Steelers Nation rejoices! »
January 23, 2006
Shutting the door to word of mouth
I think the Chicago Tribune enjoys having smart readers visit its website. That's why it sometimes invites readers to comment on its stories. It's the Age of Participatory Media, right?
Yet, this smart newspaper continues to confound smart readers by quickly shutting off comments to discussion-worthy stories, like the one it printed Sunday: "Will Work for Less: It Used to be A Good Job, Now It's Just a Job."
For this story, the paper decided to forbid new comments hours after it was published. Thirty-eight comments streamed in fast, but its potential was hundreds of comments about globalization, corporate citizenship and their effects on the middle class.
But as it usually does, the Trib closes story comment forums quickly, without explanation. Reader comments and trackbacks are an artery to word-of-mouth, and the paper denies itself a tidy ransom of page views and subsequent ad revenue when it decides to keep reader participation at a minimum.
Pretty baffling. I wish I knew why.
Other blogs that reference Shutting the door to word of mouth:
» Advanced MP3 Catalog Download from MP3 Catalog
Download advanced mp3 catalog pro Advanced MP3 Catalog is designed for anyone ... Generate and print reports and CD covers, export your catalog, search for ... [Read More]
Interesting...
I just read an article about the Washington Post doing the same kind of thing when it posted a very politically-charged to its blog.
The blog responses quickly became very partisan, profane and beligerant. The Post closed the blog to "sort it all out".
This goes right to the heart of what a blog is supposed to be. It can be an interactive forum for different viewpoints, a virtual "Letters to the Editor" tool or a way to express things without the normal journalistic and editorial constraints.
Blog authors and publishers probably ought to post their purpose and rules of the road and make sure that readers and poster/commentators see these statements before going into business.
There's an update on the Washington Post comment mess on Dan Gillmor's site: http://bayosphere.com/trackback/1695
I look at this as potentially a direct response to the L.A. Times wiki debacle, if you remember that.
Shutting down comments after a while makes sense, especially for a newspaper where credibility is the coin of the realm. Managing and moderating online community isn't trivial or cheap. But shutting down comments after a few hours indicates to me that they're not acutally trying to foster community but instead mine their user base for free content.
I'm with ya on accountability, Jeffrey. When people can hide behind a veil of anonymity, personal accountability is often lost.
But since the Tribune and the Times both require registration to view their free content, I'm baffled as to why they would not simply port that registration layer to blog comments and/or wiki entries.
