STANDARDS IN ONLINE READER POSTINGS
(Bob Stover, managing editor of Florida Today, examines the thorny topic of standards and online reader postings.)

Where will you find a newspaper's most controversial discussions? They're not on the editorial or op ed pages. They are in the online forums, chats and blogs. These avenues for readers to talk to one another and discuss news are a fast growing segment of the newspapers' online appeal. And they present challenges and opportunities for newspaper managers. One of the challenges is explaining to readers – and some staff members – why people can say things in these online discussions that we would not put in the print product. One of the opportunities is for editors and reporters to use this flow of information and opinion to monitor the public's pulse and find sources and topics for articles.

Bob Steele, scholar for journalism values and ethics at the Poynter Institute, urges caution in using this new tool. "Organizations that just race helter skelter into the Wild West of online are doing so at their peril," he wrote in response to questions about his view of chats, blogs and forums. Poynter formed a task force earlier this year to develop recommended guidelines for "user-generated content." The proposed guidelines will be posted on Poynter's Web site sometime in December, but will be a "work in progress," Steele said. People across the country will be invited to suggest additions and edits. "I believe news organizations always retain ethical responsibility for the content of their web sites, even if they are using legal rulings to keep a more 'hands-off" approach,' Steele said. "I don't think it's wise for a traditional newspaper to throw out its responsibility standards just because the forum for public discussion moves from print to a cyber platform. Quality news organizations should be prompting civil, spirited, provocative discussions on significant public issues."

At floridatoday.com "spirited" and "provocative" is a hallmark, but civility does get battered at times. One reader recently offered to go out and buy rope to lynch a driver who caused a fatal automobile accident. We took that post down when it was pointed out to us. And it's not uncommon for readers to try and circumvent our dirty-word filter.

Lea Donosky, interactive editor for Atlanta's ajc.com, is on the Poynter task force. "I think there is justifiable concern about the language that gets on (forums and blogs)," Donosky said. "One thing I've found, though, is that other commentators will try to police it by telling people to knock it off. I've found that if we go in and are alerted to it and take it down, it doesn't have that much reverberation." It's not like when it appears in print where people can see it forever, she said.

Two types of content

Poynter's task force has identified two broad categories for user-generated content.

■ Self published material that is not vetted or edited.

■ Editorially-vetted material such as "tell us your story" or "send us a news photo."

The guidelines will deal with "active" and "passive" moderating and suggest questions to consider when deciding which way to go. Despite the burden of taking down inappropriate content, Donosky sees the reader-generated content as "a mainstay of our site." Some readers are "very loyal, hard core users" apparently spending a large part of their work day participating. "One day our site was down for a couple of hours and one comment on a blog said, 'Wouldn't you know it, it came back up just as I'm ready to leave work for home.' "

Useful for sourcing

The AJC is finding the discussions provide sources and leads for stories. "We have a blog called momania," Donosky said. "One entry was asking how a person decides when to send a kid to school. How sick do they have to be? She asked the question purely from a mom point of view, but in the conversation, people started talking about school policy, claiming that officials would encourage parents to bring their students to school, then let them go home at 10 a.m. That way the school would get the state reimbursement for attendance. It's a good story to pursue."

In October Gannett papers in Florida used an online forum to obtain hundreds of responses from readers about hurricane insurance issues. Participants had a lot to get off their chest about out-of-control insurance rates, so many of them did talk smack about public officials and insurance companies. But they also provided reams of factual information and contacts that helped us build depth and personality for a series of articles that ran two weeks before the election.

Today our community conversation desk – formerly the editorial department – regularly scans forums and chats. They are not looking for commentary to take down, but for story tips and reader interest. If a chat or forum is getting a lot of posts and a lot of traffic, they will take a look to see what's driving the interest and pass the information on to an editor or reporter.

It's important to note that the forums and chats aren't just for the participants. Many people read the comments, but don't chime in themselves. Donosky said the "lurkers" outnumber the participants about 10 to one on ajc.com's blogs and forums. At floridatoday.com it's not uncommon for that ratio to be 100 to 1 for a newsy story. A recent triple slaying had 78 comments posted one afternoon and evening, but that chat page drew 8,621 page views in the same time period.

An editor describes what works and doesn't. Dave Larimer, one of the online producers at floridatoday.com, has been a newsman for more than 30 years. He's worked the last five years online. Here's his plus and minus view on the new world of reader generated content on chats and forums:

What I don't like

■ Story chat folks can be rude and crude. You have to watch the edgy stories full-time and intervene in cases of profanity and libel.

■ Chats for light, warm-hearted stories can take a twist that subtracts from the intent of the story. For instance, a recent story about thousands of motorcyclists going on a holiday toy run for charity devolved into a story chat about whether bikers drink too much before the event.

■ There will be a few story chatters who are high maintenance. One person never misses a chance to tell folks that a local county commissioner is regularly seen in bars, drinking too much.

What I like

■ Story chat connects the public directly with our stories and gives readers/viewers a feeling that our web site serves them uniquely and personally. *It engenders lively debate that is essential to our First Amendment freedoms.

■ It takes our stories one step further: directly to people involved in the news. For instance, in a recent automobile crash that killed a mother, her daughter entered our chat site on the news story and told the public about what a person her mother was.

■ As a Web producer/editor, I am always looking for ways to increase page views. Story-chat forums often give us a healthy bump. Some, such as the Palm Bay traffic crash, can provide 3,000 to 4,000 page views for that particular forum item alone.

■ Story chat/forums help enhance and deepen our news coverage. Often story chatters have provided information that has not been previously revealed. This tidbits give us direction in follow-up coverage. Example: in the Palm Bay crash incident above, the daughter provided personal information on her mother that helped expand our follow-up coverage. (We independently checked the statements for accuracy).

■ Story chats give us story ideas.

NEWSTRAIN: NEXT STOPS VANCOUVER, MEMPHIS – ALL ABOARD!
The best bargain in newsroom training is coming to Vancouver, B.C., Jan. 23-24, and to Memphis, Feb. 9-11. The lead trainers in Vancouver will be Jacqui Banaszynski and Edward Miller. Jacqui holds the Knight Chair in Editing at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and is on the visiting faculty of The Poynter Institute. Ed is managing director of The Newsroom Leadership Group, a coaching and consulting consortium based in Marietta, Ga., and an affiliate of The Poynter Institute. He writes "Reflections on Leadership," a weekly e-mail essay on newsroom management that is sent to more than 6,000 newspaper editors around the world. The Memphis workshop is packed with big thinkers in our business, including Keith Woods, Kristin Gilger, Dick Weiss and Randy Covington. Keith is dean of the faculty at the Poynter Institute. Kristin is director of student media at Arizona State University, and also teaches in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication as ASU. Dick runs WeissWrite, a coaching business, available at www.weisswrite.com. He currently is touring as a speaker for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. Randy is director of the IFRA Newsplex at the University of South Carolina, a newsroom of the future jointly operated by the University and IFRA, the international press consortium. The complete programs and registration information are available here.

MEMBERSHIP: TIME TO SIGN UP FOR 2007
It's time to renew your APME Supporting Membership or Editors Circle membership. Supporting Memberships are $100 a year while Editors Circle memberships are $250. Both give you discounted entry fees for one of APME's prestigious journalism excellence awards next summer and a reduced registration rate for the 2007 APME annual conference in Washington, D.C. Plus, you will have the satisfaction of supporting APME's efforts to improve the practice of journalism by making a tax-deductible, charitable donation to the APME Foundation. If you've been an APME Supporting Member in the past, please consider becoming a member of the Editor's Circle. Your increased contribution to APME's programs will count towards our Challenge Fund, which the Knight, Ford and Ethics and Excellence in Journalism foundations are matching 50 cents for every dollar you contribute. So your $150 increased giving will result in a total benefit of $225 for APME's vital programs, such as NewsTrain and Credibility Roundtables. If you are not a Supporting Member or Editors Circle member, please consider becoming one before the end of the year. Your new contribution also will count towards APME's Challenge Fund goal of $152,000. If there are colleagues in your newsroom who would benefit from APME's programs and activities please give them involved, too.

To renew your Supporting Membership or Editors Circle membership, click here.

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SAVE THE DATE
Next year's APME conference will be Oct. 3-6 in Washington, D.C. There are two big reasons to join us. We'll have one of the first tours of the new Newseum. And we guarantee you'll go home with 500 ideas for your newsroom. All managing editors, online editors, assistant managing editors, deputy managing editors and senior editors are invited. And, in case you missed it, APME is partnering with the Society for News Design on a joint meeting in Las Vegas in 2008. Click here for more.

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