Here’s a quick idea I had during a discussion at JEECamp:

Papers have long been the place people made “announcements” — births, deaths and marriages — they still see this as an important service and revenue generator. It is however being fast made redundant by Facebook — where not only is it easy to make an announcement, but people can congratulate.

So would it be good for newspapers to connect their announcements in the hard copy with online versions — where people could comment. This leverages the remaining bit of prestige of the paper announcement to create a space online where the community can interact. It would also be a space to sell very targeted adverts — or at least prime spot for florists.

Of course it would need moderation — no one wants to see “glad your dead” comments — but it wouldn’t be complex legal points, so could probably be done very quickly.

Good idea or not? Can you see a reason not to do it?