Gannett ended online commenting for most of its news sites Wednesday, citing difficulties in dedicating staff to moderate comment sections.
Some of Gannett’s larger outlets including the Detroit Free Press, The Arizona Republic, and The Cincinnati Enquirer will retain online comments. However, the vast majority of the company’s roughly 200 dailies will no longer allow readers to post comments directly to their websites.
Earlier in the week, several outlets ran versions of a statement announcing the change. They explained that online comment spaces often “quickly devolve” when left unmonitored, leading to off-topic discussions and verbal abuse. In the past, Gannett has asked its journalists to help moderate these spaces, but that will no longer be possible due to “changes in staffing.”
“While we continue to believe in the importance of comments, we had to make the hard choice to move away from the space due to changes in staffing and the time investment necessary to bring you a safe, moderated and productive discussion space,” the statement reads.
Gannett has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent months. In August, the company laid off 400 staff members and eliminated another 400 open positions. Four months later in December, Gannett cut its news division by a further 6%, resulting in roughly 200 layoffs. And just three weeks ago, the company executed another round of cuts affecting employees in Classifieds, Sales, Legals and Obituaries departments.
Some outlets did not notify readers of the changes, instead quietly eliminating their comment sections. Jill Bond, the news director of The Herald-Times in Bloomington, Indiana, took a different approach. In a letter to readers, she wrote that she had learned of Gannett’s decision on Monday, just two days before comments were to be eliminated, and apologized for the changes.
“I sincerely apologize as I recognize how important this feature is to many of you and that the majority of you have used this forum to engage in respectful, honest debate about issues in our community,” Bond wrote. “We have experienced some problems with spam comments, but for the most part, I know those of you using our commenting system for discussion are real members of the Bloomington community.”
Three years ago, 24 Gannett newsrooms partnered with The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement to participate in a study on online comments. The researchers found that eliminating comments led to readers spending less time on the site. They also found that the majority of readers did not notice when comments were removed, but those who did largely said it made their experience on the news site “worse.”
Following the experiment, Gannett decided to enable comments on its news sites in 2020, according to the statements some outlets posted. “We’re all better when we can hear each other and learn from different perspectives,” they read.
A number of major news outlets do not allow online comments, including CNN, Reuters and The Atlantic. However, those discussion spaces can be a service to readers, as Elizabeth Djinis pointed out in a 2021 article for Poynter:
Is the death of online newspaper comments greatly exaggerated? It largely depends on their function. If the goal is for online comments to serve as the primary form of discourse around an article, rather than social media or even external discussion, it’s probably unrealistic. But if the aim is mission-based, that of a newspaper providing a service to their readers, a way for readers to engage with content that at least gives them the appearance of being heard, then online newspaper comments may still have a long future yet.
Joe Sommer, a Columbus Dispatch subscriber since the 1980s, told Poynter that the comment section was one of the few ways for “regular citizens” to have their voices heard.
“Here in Columbus, we’ve lost a number of alternative papers, and we don’t have public access TV anymore,” Sommer said. “There are just very few ways for regular citizens to get their message to a wider audience in the mainstream media.”
Local politicians often read comment sections, said Sommer, who used to work in Ohio’s state government. In the past, county officials and a state official mentioned seeing his comments on the Dispatch’s website.
Dan McCormick, a Columbus resident who has led a number of campaigns addressing tax and zoning issues, said he has found the comments section to be an invaluable resource in understanding what the public thinks about issues.
“When you’re running one of those campaigns, you have to understand all sides of it,” said McCormick, who said he has been a subscriber since the 1980s. “You’re not going to get that from reading the paper. You get it from reading what people are thinking and saying.”
Over the years, McCormick has seen the Dispatch push back its delivery times and cut print days. He canceled his print subscription a few years ago but kept his online access so that he could read the comments. Without them, he doesn’t see any point in keeping his subscription.
Sommer said he will likely drop his subscription to the Canton (Ohio) Repository. He subscribed after temporarily living in Canton last year and had maintained that subscription specifically to comment on local issues there.
For now, Sommer plans to keep his subscription to the Dispatch so that he can stay informed about local elections in Columbus. The city will play host to a mayor’s race and nine city council races this year. Sommer said he had been looking forward to seeing reader comments on those races. After the election, he will reevaluate whether it’s worth it to keep subscribing.
Readers still have the ability to submit letters to the editor and contact reporters directly with their feedback. Email addresses and social media handles are listed in reporters’ staff bios, which can be found by clicking their bylines. Gannett has also encouraged readers to comment on outlets’ social media pages.
Gannett recommended that the last time it shut down comments for the Dispatch, Sommer said. He visited the Dispatch’s Facebook page once and found that a number of articles weren’t posted there. Facebook is a “very inadequate, highly inferior” substitute to an onsite comments section, he said.
In her note to readers, Bond acknowledged that the discussions on Facebook were often lacking: “You can still engage in debate on our Facebook page. I know the quality of discussion is often inferior but hopefully your participation will bring it up to a higher standard.”
Here is a list of Gannett sites that will keep online comments:
- USA TODAY (Opinion section only)
- MMA Junkie
- Detroit Free Press
- Detroit News
- Phoenix, AZ
- Cincinnati, OH
- Packers News, WI
- Milwaukee, WI
- Indianapolis, IN
- Des Moines, IA
- Worcester, MA
- Portsmouth, NH
- Fort Collins, CO
- Oklahoma City, OK
