Dan Gilmorr’s advice extends to magazines, trade associations: Dan Gilmorr has some great advice today that he recently shared with newspaper editorial page editors on how blogging and other forms of citizens journalism (or, as I call it, “conversational media”) should be utilized by newspapers. Just change the words “editoral page” and “paper” into “magazine” or “trade association” and the same advice applies:
Editorial page weblogs. Discuss upcoming topics among the staff and welcome reader comments.Offer user-moderated posting and comment systems. Moderation by the newspapers — that is, removing obscene or illegal postings or trolls — will be necessary.
Use comments and community postings as letters to the editor. Better, publish greatest-hits threads of the best conversations, not isolated letters referring back to stories and editorials that no one remembers clearly. Provide context.
Publish the best reader-written essays in the paper. Let readers decide which are best. (Sometimes you will disagree with the readers and have a good reason for not publishing a certain piece; explain why you made that decision.)
Over time, think audio and video for commentaries.
