Kevin Anderson writes that “blogging is not a publishing strategy,” which is correct, of course. He’s also right when he says that many newspaper leaders see blogging or podcasts as just another distribution channel. And he’s right to say that is wrong.
I do take issue with this, though:
I’m not saying that it’s a mistake to allow comments on the bottom of articles or columns. But that doesn’t change the fact that simply allowing comments on static content isn’t taking full advantage of blogging. It’s is treating blogging as a content-management system that allows comments. If that’s your goal, just adapt your content-management system to accept comments.
Comments on stories isn’t blogging. There may be newspaper leaders, who believe it is, but it’s not. Kevin, however, seems to be equating comments with blogging. Comments on stories is exactly that: Comments on stories. It is a way of having a conversation, if done correctly. It is a way of directly bringing community into the journalism. It is something all newspaper sites should and must do. To do it right is hardly simple.
Most newspapers do blogging poorly, of course, but that is unrelated to the comments on stories issue.
