Online Discussion War Is Joined

Fresh off of his first experience with the wrath of the unwashed masses of the blogosphere, Washingtonpost.com executive editor Jim Brady has convinced the Posties to let the dot com hyperlink their bylines allowing anyone to email a Post reporter with just a click.

“The irony of the backlash to my decision to shut off this comment string last month was that we’ve taken numerous steps during the past year to open up the Post Web site to its readers. We have 80 to 90 hours of live discussion programming every week, almost half of which involve Post reporters and editors. We’ve launched more than 30 blogs, which allow for reader comments and which have built vibrant communities. On our article pages, we’ve added links to related blogs. Just last week, we began hyperlinking all bylines on the site to allow readers to more easily send e-mail to Post reporters and editors. We’ll continue to add features that allow us to interact with readers,” Brady wrote in an op-ed over the weekend.

The move was quietly unveiled last week and then belatedly trumpted yesterday when The New York Times announced it would roll out the same thing today–although to contact columnists you’ll still need to fork over that $49.95 for TimesSelect.

Of course the emails come with a subject line saying their from a Washingtonpost.com reader, so Post reporters are only one mailing list rule away from sending all such emails right to the trash–where most bloggers’ comments belong in the first place.

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