Feb. 9, 2006

By RICK HALL
The Deseret News

On the reader-feedback portion of the Wisconsin State Journal's web site, you'll find postings, typical of those on any newspaper web site, that suggest some readers believe we editors don't know what we're doing.

Today's readers are clearly more demanding.

Ellen Foley, the Journal's editor, believes that, generally, readers are also more discerning.

The Journal has just begun a brave experiment to explore that.

Each day — barring later-breaking major news — Journal editors set aside one Page One slot for the "Reader's Choice" story. Readers go to the paper's web site at www.madison.com and choose that story from a list, which is suggested by the Journal's staff and finalized by Managing Editor Tim Kelley. Readers have five hours each day to vote and, throughout the day, can check their opinions against other readers.

A few days into the experiment, Foley says the initiative has been "eye-opening and fun."

"If we give readers enough information, they'll make good decisions," she said.

So far, so good. "Readers are not picking news of the weird," she said.

Criticism, thus far, has come only from bloggers and a few others who say that "we're giving up our responsibility to make decisions about the news," Foley said.

"But readers are smart. If we can't trust readers to vote one story onto the island, then something is wrong with America," she said.

Foley said the idea surfaced during a retreat last year where the paper's editors were encouraged to be revolutionary.

"We keep the staff informed about circulation, ad revenue, the transition to online and convergence. So this was just part of that broader conversation," Foley said.

Given the long incubation period for the idea, staff buy-in has been quite broad, Foley said. "They're as fascinated as we are."

The other key, Foley believes, is that story ideas bubble up from the staff, into the morning news meeting and are well-vetted before Kelley narrows the list to four or five specific stories.

"We fell into a simple, yet respectful and rich, information-gathering tool," Foley said, adding that she's sure "somebody out there is doing something better."