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Times Online: Increasing interactivity and the benefits of reader comments

Posted: 11/12/09 By: Laura Oliver

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Comments on newspaper websites are one of the oldest forms of interaction offered by publishers to readers.

Yet according to one technology firm behind such tools for newspapers Pluck there's still plenty of opportunity to improve and increase this facility. But as a provider of commenting and other social media sharing technology to groups including the Times, Sky and the Guardian, Pluck would be expected to say that.

Yet recent figures back this up: following the implementation of Pluck's social media platform on Times Online in July there was a 30 per cent increase in user comments over the first three months.

Numbers from Pluck suggest that more than 170,000 comments were made on the site during this period. But how is the Times making use of this commenting community and what can it offer in return?

Journalism.co.uk put some questions to assistant editor Tom Whitwell to find out more:

What specifically in Pluck's features has helped increase the number of comments?
We're able to moderate comments faster and more reliably; we offered a good, clean login process; and the 'recommend' feature means readers get feedback on their comments. It's just simple customer service.

The recommend button is pushed 40,000 times a day on the site. We get more than 5,000 comments and around 1,000 new registrations each day. We have thousands of very active readers who regularly leave more than 10 comments each a month.

How does this impact on journalists/moderators?
We're learning that all the time, finding ways to create a closer connection between journalists and readers. Journalists often want to contact commenters to follow up their stories and we're increasingly seeing Times journalists in the comments responding directly to readers.

How does the Times benefit from such an increase in comments?
We benefit from anything that creates more engagement between our readers and our journalism. A small percentage of our overall readers leave comments, but those are our most dedicated readers. We want to make their experience of the site as good as possible. We believe that in the long term, those dedicated readers are far more valuable to us than drive by visitors who read one story then click away.

How does the Times' see itself developing its interactive features?
We've had a lot of fun experimenting with liveblogging using CoveritLive. We've had some huge successes, some really compelling debates and, reassuringly, few tumbleweed moments. Readers and journalists seem to enjoy the direct connection that live debates give, and we're working to build that connection across our comment system. Next year we'll be launching a redesigned site and comment will be far more prominent.

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