Online newspaper distributor Newspaper Direct lets users comment on articles

Posted by Alisa Zykova on September 3, 2008 at 10:39 AM

Newspaper Direct Inc's PressDisplay, an online "kiosk" that carries content from more than 700 mainstream newspapers, announces that it now lets registered users comment on any story. This move may help publishers employ social media features for their titles, allowing the readers to be a "part of the story", reports PR Web.

Readers today may be more likely to share their opinions on the Web, which is something that may urge publishers to take advantage of social media, according to Alex Kroogman, Newspaper Direct's CEO.

"The proliferation of user-generated discussion on other social media tells us that readers want to engage with reporters, editors and other readers. Giving customers what they want helps increase reader loyalty and retention -- critical success factors for online profitability of publishers," said Kroogman.

The site's new "community-building" initiative highlights stories getting the largest amount of reader reactions and those that readers rate as being well-written. Users comments are gathered on their profile pages.

The readers are in charge of moderating comments and do so through the use of a "Report Abuse" notification that is sent out to the site's online staff. In case publishers want to moderate on their own, they are provided with the tools to do so.

Source: PR Web