Major Newspaper Chain Deletes All Comments Sections

Axios reports:

MediaNews Group, the local newspaper company owned by Alden Global Capital, has shut down all of its comment sections as of July 1st, due to difficulties in moderating them, executives told Axios.

MediaNews Group, also known as Digital First Media, is home to hundreds of weekly newspapers and dozens of daily newspapers, including major regional outlets such as The Denver Post and Boston Herald.

In a statement, MediaNews Group Executive Editor Frank Pine said all MediaNews Group publications removed the commenting widgets from their sites on July 1st because “open comments can be difficult to moderate, and the discussion can sometimes be overwhelmed by spam, vicious political feuding, or even worse, hate speech.”

Read the full article. Other notable papers owned by MediaNews include the Detroit News, the East Bay Times, and the Orange County Register.

MediaNews Group, the local newspaper company owned by Alden Global Capital, has shut down all of its comment sections as of July 1st, due to difficulties in moderating them, executives told Axios. https://t.co/gnDCIv1lYb

— Axios (@axios) July 6, 2023