• Advertising Age, Monday, January 9, 2012 3:30 PM

In a first for glossy women's magazines, with its March issue Ladies' Home Journal will turn to crowd-sourcing for much of its content. LHJ will be running fact-checked, user-generated stories taken from its website and other digital channels, including posts on DivineCaroline.com, a sister Meredith publication site. The amateur writers will be paid professional rates. 

Why, oh why? "The magazine says the changes were driven by research revealing that readers wanted a greater role in filling its pages," writes Nat Ives in Ad Age.

"We’re sure they did, but just because people want to talk doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good conversation," writes Chris O'Shea on Mediabistro. "Jim from HR talks non-stop about how he would manage the Yankees, but put him in the dugout and suddenly a lot of New Yorkers are considering rooting for that other team that (allegedly) plays baseball here.

With reader-created content Ladies’ Home Journal is about to find out, in the harshest way possible, just how bad it can be."

We edit for a living -- so we just want to add a heartfelt "Oy!" to that.

Read the whole story at Advertising Age »