If news outlets prevent comments, they kill interaction, lose readers

I heard troubling news the other day when I got word of newspapers starting to take down the comments section of their online product.

Bad move.

The point of an online product is interaction. Readers want to interact. They want to have the right to state their opinion on the topic being reported. This may mean they start screaming, bashing, naysaying and hating. These are not reasons to completely nix the comments. These are reasons to promote them even more.

People absolutely love those comments. Some readers even go to a news outlet’s Web site just for the comments. I know I do.

How does one interact reading a newspaper? You can’t (not yet, at least—maybe a future, future edition). What about television media? Same thing—viewers can’t give their opinion, except for voting on talent shows.

The power of the Internet allows them to comment, to say what they think about that story or about another person’s comment. And they can do it instantly, not just from their computers, but also from their handheld devices.

Granted, from what I learned from a recent panel discussion, is that those who post comments are liable for what they post. We’ve seen this most recently in New Jersey with a blogger who posted a comment about a technology firm, citing sources. That firm sued for defamation and wanted the sources. They won.

That being said: One newspaper informed me they removed comments from their Web site because it became a bashing match between commentators. Who cares. That makes for a more interesting read and people even start talking about those comments, telling friends, “Did you see that stuff on So-So Newspaper’s site?” And that ultimately gets more people to the site, which increases traffic, which allows for increased advertisements.

Some news outlets say they will remove such comments that are profane or libelous and some news outlets even have an editor who looks through comments before they’re posted. These are ways to help curb the lunatics who get nasty or downright disrespectful.

I do agree with nixing lunatic comments, but news outlets have to be careful with jumping to such actions as cutting everyone off completely.

As a result, those readers will just go to another source for their news and interactive entertainment.