News I Wish I Could Comment

Nationally Syndicated Columnists write excellent articles at various online news outlets but many of these news websites do not provide a means for comments from their readers.

With the blogging softwares that are available, there is no reason for major websites not to include the ability for readers to provide their thoughts online. Granted, with the amount of spam online it certainly creates an opportunity for the spammers to take advantage of the situation. However, there can be controls that could very easily be implemented to provide this valuable service for readers of the online publications.

Each columnist could be given control over his/her area for monitoring the comments. There would be the added benefit of feedback to the writer for the current story; as well as any future ideas that might come out of the comments. Readership would increase , because readers would want to see what others thought of the story, plus those that do leave a comment are more likely to return in the future. With email notification, comments could be monitored before they are placed on the site. Or the comments could be posted to begin with and if it was truly someone taking advantage of the situation to be off topic, the comment could be deleted.

Actually, any news article, whether the article is written by a reporter or columnist could provide this outlet for their readers. Yes, it is true that most people will not place a comment, but for those that want to become more interactive on the Internet, by providing their thoughts and ideas this would be an excellent opportunity online.

News organizations could help brand themselves by providing this form of media outlet. I think a lot of news websites are living in the pre Internet days; when they had newspaper subscriptions that were going up and up. Now however, newspapers are loosing subscriptions like a bucket with a hole in the bottom. People are letting their subscriptions lapse and instead are getting their news online. Even the local news can be found simply by targeting a Google News local news search for the various keywords. Email alerts can be set up using Google Alerts. With this service, news can be delivered daily to your email box.

So, National, International, Local, and Global News organizations better think quickly and provide a means for comments on their websites. With the Internet, the jump from one Brand to another is simply a click away.

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