Support requests are all over the map, as you might expect. Such questions from Internet newbies generally can be answered quickly with boilerplate replies. Golden says his department's goal is to answer all inquiries personally, and not send out impersonal automated replies with answers pulled from a database. Those messages are forwarded to appropriate reporters, editors or departments at the newspaper and the Web site, and a note is sent back to the person acknowledging that the message indeed has been read by someone at the company. They're also told about the site's message boards, instructed on how to submit comments to the letters to the editor page, etc.
Frequent requests arrive for the e-mail address of a reporter or editor.
The staffers responding to such requests are encouraged to help such people out, and are allowed to do some research. For the Kiss Web site request, for example, Coleman says a quick Web search was done and a note was sent with a few URLs of Kiss sites. The goal at both the Post and Republic Web sites is to quickly answer most questions, though there's no set deadline. If a request requires some research, the sender might receive a short acknowledgement, and then an answer in a day or more. Not overwhelming With both Web sites, the number of inquiries has not been overwhelming.