Comments on: Memo to newspapers: Let your readers inside the wall

By: Sharath Bulusu

Sharath Bulusu — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:25:41 +0000

Here’s an interesting presentation of the Guardian newslists – http://latertodayguardian.appspot.com/

It’s a cool hack by Chris Thorpe and he’s blogged about it here: http://blog.jaggeree.com/post/11905887945/the-later-on-today-guardian-ipad-apps-and-news-lists

By: Adam Klawonn

Adam Klawonn — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:53:41 +0000

I *like* this idea. However, my concern is with stories that have greater implications than what everyday readers may perceive. Under this “crowdediting” model, would Abu Ghraib or Walter Reed make it out into the news ether, or would participating readers spike it because they may perceive covering it as un-patriotic?

By: H. Butterfield

H. Butterfield — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:27:16 +0000

The newspaper in Spokane, Wash. made a big splash about five years ago with its “transparent newsroom.” People could tune in to the morning and afternoon news meetings, post comments on a blog, attend either meeting, etc. Still, the layoffs continued. I think the paper stopped podcasting the meetings, but anyone can still attend. Most readers are busy with their own jobs, their own lives. They want their newspaper to help them navigate the world, not be their buddy or get free labor out of them as a “citizen-journalist.”

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:15:33 +0000

Thanks a lot, William. Appreciate the link.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:15:04 +0000

Thanks a lot, Simon.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:14:45 +0000

I agree it isn’t all that compelling in presentation, William — and many readers may not care. But I still think the effort is worth making, and the overall message of opening up is a good one.

By: William P. Davis

William P. Davis — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:58:19 +0000

We tried this at the Bangor Daily News for a few months. Ultimately the feedback we got wasn’t immense, even though we gave it pretty prominent homepage time for a few yours every morning. You can see what we did at http://bangordailynews.com/browse/the-daily-news-meeting/. I’ll be interested to see how it works for The Guardian.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:41:17 +0000

This makes a lot of sense. As a one-time newspaper reporter, I would have loved this approach, as it might have introduced me to sources for stories that I otherwise might never have uncovered. And, later, in PR for a non-profit, it was often frustrating to see a story in the paper relating to our cause, and wished we had had an opportunity to comment or provide facts that would have added to the story.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:48:38 +0000

To mention open newsroom initiative, you can also speak about cafebabel.com, a european participative magazine, who received a Knight foundation subsidy to develop such a concept. To have a glimpse, you can have look here : http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/about/participate/

By: William Mougayar

William Mougayar — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:48:42 +0000

How many “Memos to newspapers” have you written so far? I lost track counting, Lol…

This one is a good idea, but I would put it in the “tinkering” category. I wonder how many readers would care to see that list, especially if it’s presented in that dreadful spreadsheet format as per their blog. A more compelling format should be more interactive and with commenting and voting capabilities. The proof of success for this experiment will be the level of online engagement it gets, i.e. how many readers will really care about being part of the inner walls.