BusinessWeek editor John Byrne announced last week in a letter from the editor that BW.com will start measuring its reader engagement through a comments-to-postings ratio. For example, in December, BW.com published roughly 15,500 comments on over 600 stories that were posted that month. This gives the site about a 23-1 ratio on its “reader engagement index”.

In the letter, Byrne stated that, “we think a metric like this will be more meaningful than page views or time spent on a site."

In a conversation with minonline, Byrne regretted not having thought of the index before.

“I’m sorry I didn’t think of this earlier: it is a no-brainer," says Byrne.

Aside from measuring reader engagement, Byrne also sees value in rewarding it. The editor has implemented a program to encourage meaningful commentary. The “In Your Face” feature at BW.com is a special section that highlights the most insightful reader commentary and the most prolific commenters. At the end of the year, the top 100 commenters will receive an “I Got In Your Face at BusinessWeek.com” t-shirt, and the most insightful readers will be invited to New York for a dinner with senior editors at BW.com

Source: minonline.com