NPR said Wednesday that it was ending its comments section on its website next Tuesday because they "are not providing a useful experience for the vast majority of our users."
"After much experimentation and discussion, we've concluded that the comment sections on NPR.org stories are not providing a useful experience for the vast majority of our users," Scott Montgomery, NPR's managing editor for digital news, said in a blog post.
"In order to prioritize and strengthen other ways of building community and engagement with our audience, we will discontinue story-page comments on NPR.org on Aug. 23," he said.
NPR opened its site to reader comments eight years ago — and its overall audience now ranges from 25 million to 35 million unique visitors every month, Montgomery said.
However, "far less than 1 percent of that audience is commenting, and the number of regular comment participants is even smaller," he said.
"Only 2,600 people have posted at least one comment in each of the last three months — 0.003 percent of the 79.8 million NPR.org users who visited the site during that period."
The site has a strong presence on social media — and NPR will be branching off into a new digital platform that would bring journalists and users together to develop story ideas.
"In the eight years since NPR first launched its online comment section, the world of social media has changed dramatically, as has NPR's digital presence," Montgomery said. "We're constantly asking ourselves where we can create the best dialogue with you and how we can deepen that relationship."
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