See Jane(sville) Run: Daily Curbs Comments on Online Edition

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Wisconsin daily The Janesville Gazette, which is owned by Bliss Communications, Inc., is anything but extremely happy about the tenor of  readers' comments following news stories in the Gazette's online edition.


The Gazette began soliciting comments from online readers three years ago, and by its own estimate, presently attracts four million pageviews monthly and receives roughly 10,000 comments a month. But, as the newspaper management laments, "The nastiness...is too much."

Consequently, The Janesville Gazette has decided to ban online comments from readers concerning stories involving courts, crimes, accidents, race, or sex.  The editor pledged to continue to monitor readers' comments and invited readers to submit old-fashioned letters-to-the-editor to the print version or to call the publication's "SoundOff" line.