Insights, tools and research to advance journalism
To put faces to its comment section, The New York Times profiled 14 of its top commenters. To choose who to profile, NYT used a statistical analysis of how often their comments had been recommended, as well as the judgement of their comment moderators. Some highlights: 95-year-old Larry Eisenberg comments in poetry, writer Rima Regas […]
Vice’s Motherboard announced Monday that it will turn off its comment section. By getting rid of the comment section, editor in chief Derek Mead says it will “foster smarter, more valuable discussion and criticism of our work” in other communication channels. Mead writes there’s a stark disparity between the quality of emails Motherboard receives from […]
NYT community editor: ‘We have to treat comments as content’ (Nieman Lab) As more media organizations choose to get rid of the comment sections, New York Times community editor Bassey Etim says publishers need to “treat comments as content.” NYT asked commenters in a survey about why they commented, finding 40 percent of commenters believe […]
Justin Ellis spoke with seven news outlets who got rid of the comment section, including Re/code and USA Today’s FTW, and all but one say they won’t be bringing comments back. Reuters says comments were a small fraction of its engagement with its readers, and its comments weren’t reflective of the diversity of its readers. […]
You might have heard: Commenting platform Livefyre, which is used by publishers including The Wall Street Journal and Condé Nast, launched sponsored comments But did you know: Comment sections are the latest area of publishers’ websites to go up for sale to advertisers, but advertisers say there’s reason to be skeptical whether comment advertisements will […]
You might have heard: Comment sections are often a challenge for publishers, but benefits can include increased web traffic and community But did you know: Condé Nast, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fox News can now embed advertisements into their comment sections. The ads are powered by Livefyre and are sold directly by publishers. […]
Journalists are often warned to stay away from the comment section, especially on their own articles, but some journalists are finding value is paying attention to the comments and interacting with commenters. Ars Technica senior business editor Cyrus Farivar says he skims the comment section during the first 24 hours after a post goes live, […]
As sites including The Daily Dot and The Verge have given up their comment sections, Jessamyn West writes that a bad comment section is a system failure that can be fixed, but publishers have to prioritize comment sections. West writes that strategies such as having moderators who redirect conversations, closing threads, and giving users timeouts […]
Howard Goldberg, former AP New York bureau chief, writes that turning off the comments is the opposite of an engagement strategy, and comment sections can be used as a playground for newsrooms. Disabling comments drives users to other platforms, and newsrooms should develop a strategy for managing comment sections, which may include bringing in outside […]
Publishers including The Daily Dot and The Verge have recently shut down their comment sections for reasons including the difficulty of keeping comments civil and a lack of resources for moderating comment sections. Federica Cherubini says that while these publishers drop their comment sections, they’re still acknowledging the value of the conversation, which could possibly […]