Did you read about Coastsider in today’s Chronicle?

Barry,

I think that you provide a valuable service for our community, but thought readers might appreciate the following related posting from Poynter.org regarding today’s article in the SF Chronicle.

Allen Brown P.O. Box 370271 Montara, CA 94037

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Posted by Steve Outing 2:36:09 PM Roadblocks to User Feedback Still in Place

Warning: I’m stepping onto my soapbox. … It’s just that I was reading Verne Kopytoff’s story (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/06/BUGF9D2HAO1.DTL) from the San Francisco Chronicle today about citizen journalism. It’s a fine piece, covering many of the early initiatives in this new slice of the media world.

However, I have a quibble with one part of the story. Kopytoff uses Barry Parr, who publishes the one-man local news site Coastsider.com (http://www.coastsider.com) covering San Mateo’s coastal region, as an example — and paints him as a journalistic novice. Parr is described as “a former technology analyst who is currently a consultant.”

Parr may be a novice at reporting local news, but he’s no stranger to the news business. Among other things, he was vice president of news at CNET and co-created News.com (http://www.news.com), the popular technology-news site. Further back, he was managing producer at the San Jose Mercury News, where he was a key developer of Mercury Center, the first “newspaper on the Web,” according to his biography (http://parr.org/biography.shtml) .

Having noticed this, I sent Kopytoff an e-mail message pointing this out. But what I really would like to have done is include a comment attached to the article pointing out Parr’s background. It would have added information to the story for subsequent readers. Alas, the Chronicle’s website doesn’t support reader comments. The most readers can do is send the writer an e-mail.

I think this is the larger mistake, not the writer’s omission of a relevant fact. It’s well past time, in my view, for newspaper websites like the Chronicle’s to allow readers to comment on what they read.

(And just so I don’t get accused of being the pot that called the kettle black, I’ll note that while here on Poynter.org we do support reader comments, my column for Editor & Publisher Online(http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/stopthepresses_archive.jsp) does not. That’s a strategic decision at E&P that is out of my control.)

Comment 2 by Barry Parr  on  Jun 06  at  5:25pm  •  All my comments • 

I think the story did downplay my credentials a little too much. I know Steve Outings and respect his work. Here’s the direct link to Steve Outings’ piece:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=83444

Here’s the reply that I posted on Steve’s item:

Steve’s absolutely right that the SF Chronicle, which is ahead of the industry in many ways, should allow comments on its website.

He’s also right that I’m not a novice in the news business, and I did make that clear to Verne when he inteviewed me.

But I am a novice reporter. The only formal training I’ve had was one year of journalism in high school. When I started Coastsider, the only thing I’d ever had published in a newspaper was a book review.

I think it’s significant that no newspaper in the country would have considered hiring me as a reporter when I started Coastsider.