USA Today Expands into Consumer Generated Media

There's been quite a bit of buzz today about USA Today's decision to move their online publication into the realm of consumer generated media by allowing users to create profiles, add comments and tags to stories, upload their own photos of news events and even vote stories up or down with Digg-like recommendations.

It's an interesting move by a major player in the online media realm. In my opinion, it's also a smart move. USAToday stands to better engage readers by allowing them to have a "voice" in the news while still maintaining editorial control over the actual published content. By engaging the readers, USAToday will tie them more closely to its site, cementing its readership in an industry that is having a hard time holding on to regular readers.

While initial reaction on the USAToday site is mixed (with some readers liking the new features and others being upset over the front page redesign) the changes being implemented are bold and could have a dramatic impact on USAToday's long-term readership.

For example, the new home page features a prominent "reader comment" area at the top of the page. The comment section rotates through a variety of selected reader comments without letting you know what story the quote is related to. Clicking on the comment leads you to the full story on the USAToday site. Basically, the feature replicates the concept of walking past the water cooler and catching a snippet of conversation. Often, the words that you hear will interest you enough to want to stop and find out what the fuss is about. USAToday clearly hopes that this feature will draw readers into stories that might otherwise have been missed.

It worked for me. After spotting a rotating comment that stated "the image alone is enough to make me swear off meat" I clicked through to find out what the fuss was all about. Turns out it was just a story about some potentially contaminated oysters in Texas. The key here will be if people get used to clicking through and finding interesting articles or if they click through and find things that don't interest them. The former will keep them clicking and will help USAToday push stories that might otherwise get ignored, the latter will result in skeptical site visitors that ignore that area of the home page.