Okrent is on to something

In his latest column, When the Readers Speak Out, Can Anyone Hear Them? NYT obmbudsman Daniel Okrent laments that most letters-to-the editor are never shared with the public, nor are reporters' thoughtful responses to these letters.  He suggests this problem could easily be solved on the NYT website by linking reader responses to each article.

Mr. Okrent, why not take this a step further? Why not create a feature that enables NYT readers to click on a link somewhere on your site and easily set up their own blog?  Set up the system so that every time somebody links to the NYT article that they're criticizing (or praising), that article gets a trackback ping. Then when we read a NYT article on the web, we can click on a link somewhere at the bottom of the page and read all the reader reaction to that piece.  This automates the process and makes it unecessary to pay a staffer to sift through and post reader feedback (you could filter for obscenities and such).  Individual reporters would also have their own blogs in which they respond to these criticisms and questions. These responses would link automatically to the relevant article through trackbacks.  Of course reporters won't have time to respond to everything, but what blogger responds to all the trackbacks, comments and e-mails they get?  You do what you can, and respond to groups of criticisms that fall under similar themes. People will appreciate it and gain a better understanding of why you wrote what you did. You can also deal with corrections in this way... and I bet a lot of story ideas and leads would emerge in the process.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Comments

[Bill Mitchell]

Rebecca,
Good idea.
MSNBC.com took just the step you're talking about this week -- or maybe a step that's headed in a similar direction. Note the BLOG THIS link at the bottom of this and other stories at msnbc.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7000036/.

Works only with Microsoft's new Spaces blog tool, but nothing wrong with news organizations capturing discussion of their own articles with a feature that encourages readers to become publishers beneath their banner, one way or another.

[K.G. Schneider]

I agree with this in principle, but after reading Frank Rich today, my concern would be partisan-funded "readers" poised to flood the Times with trackbacks to their "perspectives." I'm sure this paranoia will wear off in a few hours... just in time for the next expose of publicly-funded propagandists.

Let a thousand flowers bloom, but I'm just not entirely confident that it is "unnecessary to pay a staffer to sift through and post reader feedback."

[Constant Reader]

Won't work as The Guardian's Ian Mayes has revealed
several times, for example
~ email lobby
URL:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1417992,00.h
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