There is an inherent competitiveness within the media industry, and any given entity goes about its business as though parallel organizations don’t exist – and throwing the competition a hyperlink is tantamount to endorsement. After all, if you sell shoes, you wouldn't willingly direct customers to another shoe store, would you?
Allen Stern criticizes WashingtonPost.com for publishing an article on the 20 best travel websites but not linking to a single one of them. "The newspaper sites still don't get how to join the conversation," he writes. "It starts with something as simple as a link to the sites and blogs who provided the content. In this case, the links should be provided to the travel sites that are mentioned."
In fairness, though, WaPo has been pretty aggressive about incorporating blogs into its everyday content, and linking out is standard practice among them. The same goes for the
That, and you have to tell them your life story via registration to view that content, another cardinal Web sin. Other sources often let their content expire, which is a prime cause of "
And this is really too bad, mainly because it is really an old-fashioned, Old Media approach to the New Media.
Note also how WaPo and the NYT are still attached to their serif fonts, as though reading from a screen and reading from paper are the same. I'm with them on that; I dig the little tails – they look nicer to me. But sans-serif the editorial process is changing because of the Internet.
Suggest a Correction
Found an error or have a suggestion? Let us know and we'll review it.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!