… Or How to Tap Your Audience Without Selling Out
AOL’s use of Web analytics to help decide news coverage might well be the definition of a double-bladed sword in journalism these days:
On the upside, it allows the audience to play, albeit indirectly through click-votes. That’s good…
Interesting and well-considered thoughts on AOL’s decision to use Web stats to curate its news offerings. I’ve done some research into this area myself, talking with the folks who’ve designed and/or run major national news sites. One thing they’ve discussed that’s interesting is the tension between automation and editorial oversight. On the one hand, online news divisions are often strapped for staff and resources, even at some of the most prominent national news sites. Automating as much of the front-page layout process for a site as possible frees up resources, allowing editors and developers to get on with dealing with the million other things on their plate. At the same time, you have to be careful about how you go about automating story selection, or else you’ll encounter all the dangers the above author denotes so nicely. The common solution is careful automation with easy overriding. In other words, you want your system to suggest stories for the layout, even put a few in automatically, but at the same time be able to “overtake”—one of my sources’ nice word choices—that system as easily as possible, so editorial judgment can still be maintained well.
