Last Updated: August 18, 2000
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Connecting with readers
E-mail shakes up editorial ‘feedback loop’
Newspapers find adjusting to e-mail complaints and
comments is an opportunity; some writers champion its use, others just
find it annoying
By Bonnie Bressers
Late last year, when Chicago Tribune readers asked columnist Bob Greene
why he didn’t answer their e-mail messages, Greene was confused. He said
he didn’t have an e-mail account. Readers said he did.
A trip to the computer technicians confirmed it: Greene’s e-mail account
was overflowing with unopened reader feedback, comments, compliments and
complaints.
There were so many e-mails that earlier messages were being automatically
eliminated to make room for new.
“It was like the mail carrier was burning the mail, and I was the mail
carrier,” he said.
In January, Greene asked people who were reading his column online to
e-mail him as an experiment to determine electronic readership. He heard
from people in 50 states and 32 countries.
Now Greene has joined the growing number of journalists convinced that
electronic communication is an important tool for narrowing the gap between
writer and reader.
“I have to say, I had to be dragged into the electronic age,” Greene
said. “I fought it and said I never wanted to be part of it. I never would
have signed up for it. But now I think e-mail has the potential of bridging
the gap a little bit. The electronic back-and-forth narrows the distance.”
A new chance to connect
Newspapers lost their connection with readers, and interactivity gives
them the chance to regain it, says Tom Regan, associate editor of the electronic
edition of the Christian Science Monitor, who, in late 1997, became one
of the first online editors to include reporters’ e-mail addresses with
their stories. In fact, Regan says, interactivity is the ‘magic bullet’
that papers have been searching for since circulation began to drop in
the ’60s.
“I personally very strongly believe that you had better get ready for
this,” he said. “It will become part of your job. If newspapers blow this
chance to reconnect with their readers, they will have no one to blame
but themselves. People like CNN and MSNBC get it big time.”
More newspaper executives are getting it too, says Jon Losness, editor
and general manager of the Post-Bulletin, a 41,000-circulation newspaper
in Rochester, Minn.
“We need to break down the walls,” said Losness, who checks e-mail every
15 to 20 minutes and responds instantly whenever possible. “We’ve come
to realize that it’s a much more competitive environment. It’s called survival.”
Some journalists who use e-mail to communicate with readers point to
improved customer satisfaction, even among readers who don’t get the answers
they want. Previously irate readers often e-mail their gratitude for the
content and timeliness of the responses. Many engage in conversation about
newspaper policies and procedures.
Cultural resistance, unproductive debate
But not everyone is enthusiastic about this foray into electronic communication
with readers.
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen says the e-mails he receives
are rarely interesting, rarely productive and rarely provocative. He says
he tends to hear from people who have a vested interest in a topic and
who are on the conservative side of the political spectrum.
“I get an idea from one out of every 1,567 letters,” Cohen said. “Almost
never do they say something that I haven’t heard of before or thought of
myself.”
Regan says he sees three types of e-mailers: Ranters who tell journalists
how stupid they are, to whom he sends template responses thanking them
for their feedback; angry e-mailers who can be diffused with explanations;
and constructive and thoughtful e-mailers interested in discourse and debate.
An example, Regan says, was an upset reader who e-mailed about an online
poll dealing with adoption and gay rights. Regan referred him to the original
article, which he hadn’t read. The two exchanged about six e-mails.
“In the end, he said he felt like he was heard. And I made a Monitor
reader for life.”
Still, there is some cultural resistance from journalists who
aren’t sure how the Internet affects them and how they do their jobs, says
Nora Paul, director of the Institute of New Media Studies at the University
of Minnesota.
“Newsrooms are doing a wonderful job of getting equipment on the table,
but not in training on how to use it,” Paul said. “Some newsrooms have
clear policies about how to use e-mail in a reporting context, but lots
don’t. Journalists who are already Internet-savvy find it to be part of
the fabric and very useful. Those who have been reluctant, often for very
good reasons such as lack of training, say ‘This is going to take too much
time.’ ”
A ‘time suck’?
That issue — time — is among the biggest concerns of editors and reporters
alike who fear that over-burdened and time-pressured reporters will be
inundated with e-mail. And new media observers agree: E-mail must be answered,
and answered relatively quickly, to avoid public ill will.
E-mail does take time, but it’s time well-spent, says Mary Ann Roser,
a reporter at the 178,000-circulation Austin (Texas) American-Statesman
who spends about an hour answering an average of 50 e-mails a day.
Much of the e-mail is from readers who have questions about stories,
want more information or want information from past issues, she said.
“I do look things up for people,” Roser said. “I don’t give them the
run-around. Too many people think newspapers are not responsive to readers.”
The Statesman, like a growing number of newspapers, includes reporters’
e-mail addresses and telephone numbers at the end of stories.
That, Roser says, can lead to some confusion.
“If you write a story about mammograms, people will call you to schedule
the mammogram. They say, ‘Your name is at the end of the story.’ They don’t
connect the phone numbers and e-mail addresses with the reporter reporting
the information. They don’t look at bylines.”
Still, Roser says e-mail is an overall benefit.
Reporters can help mediate between the newspaper and the reader, explaining
logistical issues such as how space limitations prevented the inclusion
of information a reader felt was vital. Some reporters use e-mail to find
sources or leads, schedule interviews and check facts.
Reader input is valuable
Readers, on the other hand, give feedback and story ideas. They correct
and clarify. They suggest new angles. Some newspapers accept e-mail letters
to the editor, eliminating the need for clerical staff to input the text.
While answering e-mail takes precious time, that’s often offset by fewer
phone calls. And answering e-mail can be done on the journalist’s schedule.
“I see e-mail created at 1:30 in the morning,” Losness said. “I answer
at 6:30 in the morning. We get to have a conversation, and neither of us
had to wake up the other.”
E-mail is a less formal way for readers to approach editors, he says,
so readers are more likely to share concerns and comments that they wouldn’t
voice over the telephone.
In fact, early observers predicted that e-mail, sent instantaneously
with the click of a mouse, would result in a flood of abusive e-mail sent
by angry readers before the cooling-off period. While some journalists
say abusive e-mails are no more likely than abusive telephone calls, Cohen
says e-mail has a “B-52 quality.”
“People who send e-mail press the button,” he said. “They don’t
face the person, they don’t think about what they’ve said.”
Despite the gains that have been made, Regan says newspapers don’t make
the most of electronic communication. Too few newspapers realize the value
of electronic forums and chats as a means of connecting with readers and
tracking community interests and issues. Too few newspapers actively solicit
opinions and information from readers. And too few reporters realize that
verified e-mail comments can provide important contributions to print stories.
“We’re part of the elite now,” Regan said. “We have big name reporters
making big money. There’s a sense of separation, a sense that we’re not
in touch with the community anymore. This is a way to get back.”
Bressers, the R.M. Seaton visiting professor of journalism at Kansas
State University in Manhattan, was most recently managing editor ofthe
online edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
