HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Normally journalists are not happy to hear the words “no comment” but at 6 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020, MLive journalists will say goodbye to the comments sections of their newspapers’ websites.
That includes the Grand Rapids Press, Kalamazoo Gazette and Mukegon Chronicle, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Flint Journal, and others.
MLive Vice President of Content John Hiner wrote to readers that, besides seeing just a fraction of readers comment, sometimes repetitively so, “comment sections leave an out-sized impression. Conversations routinely go off-topic, the tone can get uncivil or even nasty, and our moderators (and a vendor our company hires) stay busy around the clock policing the conversations, addressing flagged comments and even going so far as to ban some users.”
He’d said rather devote those resources to news reporting — and veer toward more civility online. He noted readers will still be able to post remarks on the MLive’s social media sites.
And, in his column announcing the move, he said he’d allow comments there for the first time. Between the column going online just before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020, and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, readers added more than 3,350 comments to the column — and yes, some of the same people made multiple posts.
