100pc growth encourages Guardian to add more community content

The Guardian is increasing community content as part of the ongoing redesign of its website, working closely with social media company Pluck, according to journalism.co.uk.

“A new community area is planned for later this year which will aim to identify the ‘most useful’ members of the Guardian’s community of readers and develop a means of asking them questions and gauging their opinions on specific topics, director of digital content Emily Bell told the audience at the Guardian’s Changing Media Summit.”

“The focus on user-interaction has been strengthened by the success of the arts, sports and Comment is Free sections of the site, Bell added, which have shown a 100 per cent year-on-year growth in page impressions and unique users since adding commenting facilities for readers.”

Interesting that the focus for the new community area appears to be picking the brains of the ‘most useful’ members of the community rather than, say, extending the community and letting readers blog as telegraph.co.uk and The Sun have done.