Jonathan Dube points out that the Washington Post, CBS News and Newsweek all have added comment capabilities to story pages. I don't think comments are the best way to build community, comments are infinitely better than no conversation at all. We've come quite a way from the days when editors would look at you and say, in all seriousness: "You mean you let them say anything they want?"
Writing for the Readership Institute's blog, Rich Gordon has a thorough overview of the how and the why of online community for news websites. It should be a great resource as more print editors inherit online responsibilities in restructured newspapers.
On an industry email listserve, someone commented that "the thing that best distinguishes us from the guys trying to start online publications in their basements (besides the really big presses out back and the staff of professional journalists in our newsrooms) is that we have our reader's trust." Here's my response:
That's the official religion of the newsroom. I think it's a dangerous delusion and part of the culture of arrogance that is rotting the foundations of journalism.
Yes, there are people who trust us.
Kudos to the Online Journalism Review and Robin Miller for observing "the poor quality of online forums run by newspapers and other local media outlets" and offering "Five rules for building a successful online community."
Rob's been doing this for along time, and has some great points to make. I've been running online communities for a long time as well (since 1986). Not surprisingly, I disagree with a few of his assertions and agree with others. Here are my reactions.
The Internet rewrites power structures. It's not just a matter of "information is power." It's also about the ability to speak, to communicate ideas and points of view. In the old hierarchical mass-media model, institutions (government, corporate) gathered and were reluctant to share such power. In the new world, social organization can proceed on a non-hierarchical model. Some might even call it a web (although arachnid webs actually are highly structured).
This afternoon at Morris DigitalWorks, where I do my day job, we're launching a Web 2.0 social filter metasite about pro and collegiate sports. I alluded to this project last week.
FanaticZone.com is a remix of some current cutting-edge ideas combined with a niche topical focus. You'll recognize some of the ideas from Newsvine, Digg, Beta.netscape.com, and from various RSS readers and aggregators.
I'm a firm believer that little things mean a lot in building community. Small talk, for instance, is a big deal -- it's how we establish the ground rules for interpersonal communications, and it opens the door to bigger and deeper conversations.
There's a great list of 150 things you can do to build social capital at BetterTogether.org. I passed it around to participants at the API's small-market online strategy seminar last week.
