Newspapers Want Readers' Help With Web Credibility

CHERYL WITTENAUER

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Publishing online creates a new set of problems for newspapers. Some people ask to have stories "unpublished," while others leave nasty, unsigned comments on articles. Now some newspapers are appealing to their own readers for advice.

The readers are taking part in six "Online Journalism Credibility" projects that were sponsored by the Associated Press Managing Editors group and detailed Thursday at APME's conference in St. Louis.

The public's involvement suggests audiences care deeply about the credibility of newspapers, said Elaine Kramer, APME's project manager. And it shows "that newsrooms are on the right track when they try to make journalism much more of a two-way conversation with readers," she said.

Readers are still getting used to seeing stories about them and people they know get catalogued by search engines that don't forget anything. The Toronto Star's public editor, Kathy English, said she gets requests to take stories down about once a month. Even a former colleague once asked her to make some embarrassing news go away.

She surveyed newspaper practices and found many editors viewed "unpublishing" as censorship. When she wrote a column asking readers their thoughts on 10 such requests faced by various newspapers in recent months, the views of most respondents were in line with editors'.