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Yahoo! exec Hillary Schneider opened the ONA conference with a message I hope rings loud and clear to online journalists - Engage the reader.

That’s a goal many online news people would love to accomplish, but how can they get it done?

My advice: Try thinking like an online marketer. Build content in a way that keeps readers coming back for more - that makes your site a resource.

Schneider discussed the need to increase partnerships with third-parties, linking to others give users more resources and establish a good reputation for being a worthwhile portal and interacting with technology systems already in place (such as Yahoo! answers and Flickr).

I imagine some attendees rolled their eyes, as some media minds are apprehensive at the thought of aggregating the “competition’s” content or using social sites such as YouTube to circulate video content. But don’t they want more eyeballs and site visitors? That’s the end game, isn’t it?

News orgs should try to engage readers where they are (that includes Flickr and YouTube) and act as a portal that is worthy for a user to come back to. They should try to add to the conversation that is going on outside of their site. The more involvement a site has, the more of an authoratative player it becomes.

A lot of sites already have the credibility, but not the personal relationship with users. Extending the web presence of a news org’s brand into the blogosphere and social networking realm is one way to establish that bond.

Have you had success engaging the blogosphere and the community at large? How did you do it?