Joel Stein Doesn't Want To Talk To His Readers

Posted on January 3, 2007

L.A. Times journalist Joel Stein expresses his opinion on the trend of interactivity: in a nutshell, he hates it. Joel thinks that the concept of instant interactivity -- where readers can have input into a writer's work via internet comments or other feedback -- is a terrible trend that should be reversed. He views the trend of making journalists' emails and phone numbers freely available on their columns as the beginning of the death of the once-proud newspaper industry. His email is at the end of his columns, but he warns readers: "Have something to say? I don't care Don't bother sending anything to that e-mail address below -- because I don't care."

Traditionally, the way that writers get feedback on their books is through sales. If sales start slipping, it means his readership is slipping. Actors have the same process: if people decide they hate Tom Hanks' last performance (or him) they just don't go to his movies (Note: this is not a problem Hanks is having, by the way. He was voted as one of American's most likeable movie stars).

But back to Joel's complaint. It's true that the concept of interactivity has run amok. We don't believe the purpose of a blog is to have an immediate discussion with readers: rather, it is to provide a forum for a particular point of view (like a magazine column) and to spark a discussion. The discussion part comes when a reader then writes about a discussed issue in his blog or by emailing the blog to give his thoughts. The discussion doesn't need to happen in a comment section because then you've turned a blog into a message board.

We'd email Joel to give him our thoughts about his column, but instead we've just blogged about it. And we now know that he wouldn't read our email anyway.