Letter from the deseretnews.com team to our readers

Newspapers have always had an interest in feedback from their readers. The primary source for this feedback, Letters to the Editor, has had a prominent place in newspapers for more than a century.

In the past decade, communication between a news organization and its audience has changed dramatically due to the growth of the Web. Various forms of online comments, message boards, user surveys, chats and forums have become standard tools on news and information websites around the world.

What hasnt changed is the audiences desire to be informed, educated, challenged and enlightened by the words and images we publish. Readers trust us to offer this experience for them on our website. DeseretNews.com offers the ability to contribute to and read user comments on stories we publish, and we are adding quick polls on many of our stories in order to enhance the dialogue with you.

Weve heard from many of you that the quality and tenor of online comments contributes to your overall perceptions about our news product. You have also told us that the small portion of our audience that reads and contributes comments could be larger if the quality of comments improved.

This past week, one of our readers sent us a Letter to the Editor making this very point. She argues that, particularly on divisive topics, the tenor of the discussion devolves into the most insensitive, crass, horrible comments. We concur and emphasize that such comments come from both sides of most issues. More than 100 readers responded to this letter with online comments of their own. Some of these comments have been respectful and offer well-reasoned arguments disputing or supporting the letter, while other comments simply reflect a lack of civility, respect and constructive reasoning. In essence, their very negativity validates the original concern.

Of course, were not alone in dealing with the challenges of online comments. Our sister companys site, ksl.com, has made numerous enhancements to its comment boards but has elected to suspend them temporarily because of the lack of civility too often evident there.

Other sites, from those of traditional news organizations like the New York Times, CNN and the Wall Street Journal to online-only publications like Huffington Post, Town Hall and AOL, have offered various forms of user-contributed comments and have altered their rules and processes repeatedly in an effort to improve the quality and tenor of discussion and to encourage more people to participate. You can read a variety of these examples in the links provided with this story.

At DeseretNews.com, we have elected to make a few changes that will roll out today.