If you're not willing to go all in on community, this is the right decision. But you are giving up something. Rather than focus on the small commenting audienc

If you're not willing to go all in on community, this is the right decision. But you are giving up something. Rather than focus on the small commenting audience as a detraction, look at it as an opportunity to grow. 2% seems small, but I bet a huge portion of that is paying subscribers. There are publications that have a healthy commenting section, so we know it's possible. At one point in time Digg (which has gone to the dogs now) had a thing where they'd have a sort of AMA with the author of an article featured on their front page. I thought that was fantastic. I wonder if the Inquirer considered allowing subscribers to ask questions of journalists, which (if answered) would appear as a comment below the article. You take the money you're paying your moderators, and you pay your journalist more for the time they're spending on that.