MediaNews is adding comments to its newspaper articles, but they're outsourced to Topix.net, which is not only providing technology but community management. Howard Owens and Topix CEO Chris Tolles are in a bit of a dustup over Owens' criticism of the deal (see comments below the journalism.co.uk post), while Steve Outing comes down somewhere in the middle.
I'm in Howard's camp on this one. This is not the same as outsourcing obituary guestbooks to Legacy.com (which I think actually makes sense). This is core.
It's not enough to "alert the publisher to problems or user comments that require personal attention," as my friend Steve Outing suggests.
This is a great opportunity to listen to the community that's being thrown away. You can't grow to understand what people care about, what's on their minds, behaving like an absentee landlord.
Some of it might be unpleasant. That's where you might just find the most value.
Earlier tonight I was reading to my family from an autobiography my dad has been writing. He was for many years a reporter and editor in the troubled city of East St. Louis, Illinois.
When he was named editor of the afternoon paper, the black weekly headlined its story "White Racist Named Journal Editor," ignorant of the role he had played in at the University of Missouri, where he was elected vice president of the student body on a desegregation platform.
Troubled by the racial tensions in the city, he called a series of meetings in black neighborhoods. There he required the attendance of all the key editors and required them to sit, silently, not defending themselves, and listen. He recalls: "It was an unbelievable psychological experience" as misunderstandings surfaced and community members began standing up to defend the paper. Issues surfaced that became key parts of the newspaper's editorial platform.
We don't listen enough. Voicemail systems and security guards separate our newsrooms from the real world. Beat reporters talk to beat sources, who have an agenda, and rarely to civilians. Normal life rarely shows up in the news report.
The Internet gives us a powerful opportunity to reconnect with communities of real people. Handing that opportunity to Topix, regardless of how well Topix might perform, squanders a treasure.