Editors: We Can Do Better

Newspapers will have to do a better job of interacting with readers if they want to survive.
That comes from people inside the industry — senior newspaper editors surveyed by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, the Associated Press Managing Editors Association and the National Conference of Editorial Writers.
A high-tech tidal wave is prompting readers to demand less one-way “fact pushing” and more interaction with audiences, the survey finds.
It says trends in technologies and journalism are forcing newspapers to reassess their roles.
“You have chat rooms and bulletin boards and you have talk time with the reporters,” said Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. “Then you start putting Web addresses at the end of stories. You really start growing this culture of readers who have the technology to talk back to you, and the appetite to talk back to you.”
The full study is at www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/research/r_interactone.html