The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) interviewed 500 readers and 1,250 newsroom editors and found that only half of the readers find that journalists joining online conversation is beneficial to good online journalism, and only 1/4 of newsrooms editors agree. This finding conflicts with many news sites opening up their stories to comments and journalist blogs.

Here are some of the results:
- 50% of the readers said that "journalists joining the conversation online and giving personal views" would be "somewhat or very beneficial to good journalism online." Only 27% of newsroom editors agreed.
- 74% of readers said that having the same standards apply to online news written by journalists and to citizen journalism content would benefit online journalism. 69% of editors agreed.
- Both support local news sites opening up stories to user comments.
- Editors were more in favor of users contributing under their real name than readers.

APME's complete findings can be  found here.

A recent US study showed that more readers and editors preferred journalists engaging in online conversation and giving their opinions with  64% of readers in favor and 42% of editors.

Source: Journalism.co.uk through David Black