• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 8, 2007

Executives from leading online companies said Wednesday that Web publishers that want to incorporate user-generated content in their sites would do well to also bolster consumer efforts with professionally created material.

"You need that user-generated content to be more like professionally created content to succeed in the long run, after the fad goes away," said Sarah Bernard, formerly the general manager of blogging site HuffingtonPost, at the Digital Hollywood conference in New York City.

Likewise, Peter Friedman, who founded LiveWorld, said the online community created by his company to promote HBO's "Big Love" wasn't left entirely to users: the main character's "blog" was carefully composed by the show's creative team.

Instituting quality controls can also simplify media deals, according to Jon Haber, account manager of innovations and entertainment for Initiative. In Initiative's work for Lion's Gate Films, for example, the company worked with existing networks of "mid-level professional content creators already distributing themselves in a robust way," rather than trying to build communities from scratch. In an interview, Haber added that "we're seeing a return to quality" aided by "editorial aggregation" filters that "push the good stuff to the top."

Executives also said it should be easier to maintain higher standards of quality in smaller communities. Rich Skrenta, co-founder and CEO of Topix, said that online communities dedicated to citizen reporting for small towns without newspapers generally produce high-quality content because "these are their neighbors" and the writers take their work seriously.