The UK’s best-selling newspaper, The Sun, has quietly launched its community website, MySun.
The tabloid newspaper is part of News Corp, which also owns MySpace. But as PaidContent reports, the site is not intended to be a social networking site.
Instead it is designed as a community site, with discussion forums and the ability for anyone to set up their own blog.
“What this will do for us is create stickiness,” said Pete Picton, editor of The Sun website. “Readers have to register if they want to comment and once that happens, it creates loyalty – and that’s better for selling adverts and for creating revenue.”
The Sun is just the latest UK newspaper to embrace the idea of user-generated content. But by creating a separate space for readers, it is making a clear distinction between its journalism and that of its audience.
This is counter to the idea of participatory journalism. Essentially what The Sun has done is create a playpen (or is it a ghetto?) for its readers to express their views, while keeping them well away from the established news product.
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