Reading a comment to a previous post on the “We” and “Them” companies a writer comments that “transparency is a code for business today, especially in light of the expanding blogosphere.
Richard Sambrook with the BBC comments about journalism says that a more participatory approach and relationship with audiences strengthens the BBC’s core values. 
More importantly, he concludes a comment on the American Press Institute website with a notion that…. “I believe there will always be a plce for editorial judgement to be applied – the esssence of the brand value of major news operations – but participation and from our audience of users is incresingly important in terms of earning trust and respect. Transparency about the newsgathering and selection process is as important as the journalism itself in retaining that trust.”
Along with this notion of user contributions, I received an email last week from Don Fenley, one of the editors at the Kingsport Times-News and he wanted to show me the Ventura Star and their recent decision to remove user comments from their newspaper site.
In my opinion, these guys just let the troublemakers take them down. As much as we all would like to run civil, democratic audience commentary, there will always be some passionate contributors that go past the limit. We need to expect those circumstances and do our best to trust our own interpretation of civil and fair feedback and get tougher skin to the ones that try to lash back at the service….
Running a transparent company …
