Online Ombudsman   

MSNBC.com establishes first online ombudsman.

IN A FIRST for the online journalism community, Dan Fisher joins MSNBC.com as an Internet news ombudsman.
Fisher, 59, retired in February as editor in chief of the MSN MoneyCentral Web site, following 27 years at the Los Angeles Times , including stints as bureau chief in Moscow, Jerusalem, London and Warsaw.
As the first ombudsman at a major online news organization, he will act both as a readers' advocate and an internal critic for the news site. "I communicate in two directions. One is outward to the readers and one is inward to the staff," Fisher says.
His first column, on May 2, challenged MSNBC.com's decision to run unopposed an Eric Alterman op-ed sharply criticizing President Bush 's first 100 days in office. When columnist Jay Severin 's op-ed went up, two days after Alterman's--Severin is often seen as the conservative response to Alterman--his piece came off somewhat critical of Bush as well.
"I think it would have been more responsible to hold off publishing the Alterman piece until a companion column from a conservative point of view was available," Fisher wrote. "Holding off for a day or two in order to simultaneously publish differing assessments...may have been useful in shifting the focus of those angry readers more toward the substance of the author's messages and less on the credibility of the messenger."
Fisher says the response to his appointment and the first column has been strong--423 e-mails in the week after the column ran. He's also heard from readers about things like pop-up ads and printer-friendly stories, possible fodder for future columns. He begins writing weekly in June.
Around MSNBC.com, feedback has been positive as well, Fisher says, though there has been a little concern. "Even in the print media, [an ombudsman] is a controversial issue," he says, pointing to the New York Times , which declines to name one.
Still, Fisher is confident and excited about his new role. "I do feel a sense of responsibility in this job," he says. "I kind of like that."

--Jason Garcia