There is a middle ground of outsourcing the comments handling to companies like Disqus. But the Philadelphia Inquirer does say that (a) it has tried everything, presumably including considering this option, and (b) the comments have proven to be not actually useful to the publication nor widely used (outwith a small group) by readers outwith two specific areas.
> But the Philadelphia Inquirer does say that (a) it has tried everything, presumably including considering this option
They claim they tried "everything", but did they actually try everything? For example, did they try limiting commenting to paying subscribers only? They don't mention in this post whether they actually tried that or not.
"BBS system" is RAS Syndrome, by the way. (-: