1. I think too many rely too much on tone as a measure of an article’s quality. It’s important, but it’s best looked on as one among many potentially more meaningful variables and metrics. Say no to tone alone.

2. You’re right. Tone is subjective and therein lies the problem. The solution lies in a) the client and vendor/researcher/supplier agreeing ahead of time, in clear terms, what constitutes positive and negative (and all shades of grey in between) and b) in building consistency among those toning into the methodology. Here, intercoder reliabiilty testing is important. Put simply, all coders need to be periodically tested against each other and against the pre-set standard put in place by client and supplier. How reliable are the coders? How consisten are they? The importance of this cannot be understated.

3. What some often fail to do is multi-tone. So, toning not only the overall article at the aggregate level, but toning, for example, brand references, product references, exec quotes etc.