Times assistant editor, Tom Whitwell:
Whitwell said that in the 18 months of developing the pay strategy for the Times he had seen an "infinite" number of ideas but that the digital plan was not to become a "news aggregator or a social network".
"What we are trying to say is we are not going to show you all the news, [like] going to Google News and seeing 4,000 articles, we are going to give our take," he said.
Whitwell said that the paper aims to build real, meaningful community relationships between journalists and readers. Part of this strategy will see users having to post under their real names only – there will be no anonymous posting or use of pseudonyms, which Whitwell believes does not build real community.
"The principle is to encourage comment under real names," he said. A colleague added that the Times and Sunday Times would only consider allowing users to post anonymously if they had a real reason to protect their identity.
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