Absolutely. Respect your audience. Love your audience. The news business is not about the news. It's about attracting an audience, and that audience is sold to advertisers. A reporter's livelihood rests solely on their audience.

One other thing, however, is to remind reporters that they should respond to comments dispassionately and not inject opinion. If someone's being obnoxious, respond to any legitimate point they raise and ignore the obnoxious part. When I did that, I found the commenters became really really polite because someone – anyone – was responding to them.

I got respect because I gave respect. And whenever they complained about anything, they apologized to me, saying they weren't blaming me, I was just one of only a couple of people who listened. While that wasn't true, and many people were listening, I was one of just a few who responded politely and respectfully.

I used to just ignore it if someone blasted me or my story or post in a comment. (Traditional journalistic wisdom.) But I've found that engaging professionally works better. (You can't rant and stoop to their level, although you can use a bit of diplomacy.) Sometimes the person just didn't understand you. Sometimes the person just wants a scapegoat. But if you respond, you end up with a dialogue at the very least that might inform other readers even if it's lost on the commenter. (It's pretty neat, too, when regular readers jump in and defend you!)

I do like your rule of thumb — after five comments you don't have to respond to every one. Makes sense. Things do eventually get repetitive.