Just Add Links You Idiots

Traditional Media August 21, 2009 4 Comments @niallharbison

Internet Links Newspapers are in big big trouble at the moment as their whole business model is in tatters and to be quite frank I am delighted. You need to move with the times in business and they are literally miles behind and scrambling all over the place trying to find a new business model.

I know I consume their content on a daily basis for free and therefore can’t give out too much but as a user I would love it if they could just add links to the things they write about. The web is about transparency and is a huge network of links that helps you find good content, if your content is good enough I will keep on coming back again and again. If you are a newspaper and are covering a new product forcing me to open a new window to search for that product rather than just linking to the website of said company is not a good user experience and will annoy me. We know that newspapers and publishers all over the world had power over us and what we read for a century but the rules have changed and publishers need to start adding even more value to what they publish.

When will these people get it into their head that there is no way you can segregate the Internet and keep it behind closed walls and start linking to relevant information on other sites? Whoever does start doing that and creating more value for their readers will be the winners.

Comments

http://www.loopthing.com Donagh Mc Sweeney

I think it’s probably to do with them wanting your entire attention on the aticle your reading and not thinking about visiting another site. I agree that links really do help the user experience but I personally don’t think it’s too much of an issue not having links on newspaper sites. Maybe it’s because they tend to be more business/lifestyle articles.

I go back to a select few because I know the content is going to be good judging from past articles. When I’m reading an article I like to read it from top to bottom first, and then I’ll go visit a site relevant to the article if I need to.
http://@elliottucker Elliot

I would guess it’s down to their production process. Most papers still have old print-biased processes and re-publishing to websites is secondary. When content is submitted it would go to their primary print CMS as is. Writers aren;t going to add links to content that will be printed.

It’s an additional step to reedit the web content to search for items that could be linked.
http://www.loopthing.com Donagh Mc Sweeney

Hadn’t thought about that Elliot but it makes a lot of sense!

http://www.simplyzesty.com Lauren Fisher

Thatis a very good point indeed Elliot! Although one that they will have to come up with a system for long term I feel

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Just Add Links You Idiots

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