IT is always interesting when you get a flurry of stories from others you follow either via RSS or on Twitter that you can knit together.
I followed a link from journalism lecturer Mark Comerford that highlighted a report on the use of the internet by US newspapers.
The yearly offering from The Bivings Group showed that more newspapers were embracing social media such as bookmarking tools, opening up comments and accepting content from readers.
Read Write Web also took a look at the report saying that 2008 will be remembered as the year change was brought to the newspapers industry.
I sent a message via Twitter to the author of the piece wondering if there will actually be any reporters in the offices of newspapers able to listen to all this social media activity.
At the moment the newspaper industry is laying off staff all over the place, as well as closing regional offices and asking hundreds of people to reapply for their jobs.
So with smaller newsrooms, and readers expecting to be involved with a newspaper's website, the worst thing you can do is ignore these people as they will be gone pretty damn quick.
However, many companies have been quick to see the value of these conversations taking place across the web as one of the hottest jobs online at the moment is community manager, often though newspapers will just hand out this responsibility to the 'web person' and add it to their existing job description, and gaps appear during time off, sickness and weekends.
And all this comes full circle after reading another message on Twitter I saw from Paul Bradshaw which looks at the value of comments on a website.
Unfortunately many comment sections, especially on newspaper websites, often become nothing more than shouting matches and there is little that other readers can gain from them.
But there is a cost and that's the time element taken up by over stretched journalist monitoring websites, who most probably want to be reporters and never thought they'd end up as referees.
And to that time cost you can begin to add legal issues, IT costs, social responsibility and a few others that Robin Hamman highlighted quite some time ago during his days at the BBC.
So while it is great to see newspaper websites offering up these tools, there are quite a number of risks and costs involved for an industry that seems only too willing to cut things to the bone.
Craig,
This recession will be the catalyst for the change we are seeing
You wonder how many papers will survive it and indeed how many journalists will do as well
Rob
Posted by: Rob Artisan | December 21, 2008 at 14:58
Hi Rob, must agree there is massive change ahead, I hope journalists are brave enough to take up the opportunities.
All the best, Craig
Posted by: Craig McGinty | December 26, 2008 at 16:45