In the decade since 2009, appraisal and importance of user contact and participation have significantly increased. While ten years ago, letters to the editor and in some cases online postings were the only ways to contact newsroom members; in 2019, all respondents considered audience and user interaction as crucial success factors. One editor-in-chief (Salzburger Nachrichten), for example, travels to different locations within the footprint of his paper every second month, inviting citizens for a readers’ evening. In another case, a newspaper entertains readers’ panels of some 30 persons, giving feedback to the newspaper’s content three times a year. It has become the normal procedure to run a social media team of up to ten members, exclusively looking after the various interactive online channels on digital platforms. One national newspaper (Der Standard) organised two waves of curated public dialogue sessions among readers in 2018 and 2019 (“Österreich spricht”, “Europa spricht”). On a regular basis, newspapers also invite readers to critically discuss one of the editions of the previous week.
ORF television also invites about 200 viewers every second month in one of Austria’s provinces to discuss programme matters. At the institutional level, ORF has created a “public value team” to establish sustainable relations with a wide variety of stakeholders in Austria. This team not only publishes annual “public value” reports and runs a website,[i] but also organises events at the ORF premises, welcomes group visitors (such as schools), and pays visits to external events upon request. However, newsrooms remain closed for the public, and no standardised interaction takes place in the television studios. This latter attitude is also reflected in ORF radio, with very little interaction with listeners.
[i] https://zukunft.orf.at/
