Are comments the ‘Ross and Rachel’ of news audience engagement?
After a long break, ABC News is about to begin the latest chapter of its on-again, off-again relationship with comments.
What is it about comments? A mainstay of news websites for decades, those same news websites have been grappling with how to build positive commenting communities for just as long.
It’s like that whole Ross and Rachel thing. (For those unfamiliar with 90s sitcom Friends, here’s a quick primer).
NPR is the latest news org to call it quits. A year on from the decision to remove comments the public broadcaster says it is never ever, ever getting back together with comments (like, ever). (Or at least, has no plans to).
Recode, Reuters, The Week, Mic are among online publishers who reached ‘deal breaker’ stage, while Popular Science is ‘on-again’ after ditching comments a couple of years ago.
At the other end of the scale, The New York Times is hoping automation will allow it to open most articles for comment.
Decisions to ditch comments are often blamed on the rise of social media, Facebook in particular, as the go-to place for audience interaction.
Dig below the surface, though, and it’s often a case of resourcing. Building a community is difficult, and building the sort of community you want is even harder.
I love this 2012 quote from Trei Brundrett (then VP product and technology, now COO, Vox Media):
“A lot of media companies struggle with comments and moderating them because they think that they should just turn comments on and then they just hope that it will go well, or that they can throw some technology at it and somebody else will solve their problem. If you want to have high-quality conversation you have to cultivate it.”
He knows what he’s talking about. In 2012 (when that quote was taken) Vox Media’s network published 35,412,480 comments.
And it’s worth noting that Vox Media’s key properties — SB Nation, The Verge, and Polygon — are all still hosting comments, and that functionality hasn’t been outsourced to Facebook. (Although, The Verge did have ‘a break’).
So on the one hand there’s the opportunity to build a community of regular commenters who spend a lot of time on the site and create content that is valuable to everyone, even those who never leave a comment.
On the other, there’s the resourcing issue. How do you pay for it?
More than two years ago, ABC News decided we didn’t have technology to moderate comments efficiently.
Today, we’re launching a three-month trial of Livefyre comments.
We aim to:
- Offer comments on a wide selection of content, but with a focus on the stories that are generating the most interest on the ABC News site;
- Build a community of commenters interested in sharing their perspectives on the news of the day in a civil way;
- Highlight the best of this content and surface it for all ABC News readers, even if they are not commenters;
- Determine whether comments on our site are still valued, despite the rise of Facebook.
We’re not sure if we’re on the path to happily ever after but, just like Ross and Rachel, we’re going to give it our best shot.
Originally published at www.abc.net.au on September 6, 2017.
