With more and more people turning to the Internet for their daily news, publications across the country have jumped on the newest online bandwagon, “link journalism.”
A form of hyperlinking that directs readers to other news Web sites or sources, link journalism goes against the traditional mindset of publications – that readers should be driven to your news Web site and stay there to receive all of their news content.
To Link or Not to Link
But major news sources such as NBC and the New York Times have both recently announced a shift toward link journalism on their Web sites, with NBC linking local TV websites to other locals publications and the New York Times creating an alternative home page with links to competitors.
“It’s a change in mindset,” said John P. Wallace, the president of NBC’s local media division in a New York Times article. “We’re looking at the fragmented local market and saying, ‘We’re going to provide a destination where you can come and search across different segments.’”
This shift toward link journalism illuminates a trend in modern journalism to be more than just a news source but a place for readers to go to find a collection of different articles and topics.
This is especially important for local news sources. When newspapers have such specific markets, it is easier for them to predict what their audience might want to read. Linking to other local news sites ensures that readers’ interests are being met and they are staying informed about local activity.
In addition, linking out to Web sites that readers might be interested in, ensures that they will return to your site, knowing that it always provides them with useful information and helpful links.
In an article on Publishng 2.0, Scott Karp wrote that a newspaper’s front page should serve as an indicator to readers of where news is, not what news is. By placing print content directly online, Karp argued that newspapers made a huge mistake and did not take advantage of the flexibility of online media.
The Drudge's of Linking
Online news sources such as the Drudge Report are essentially sites that link out to other news sources. Yet Drudge, as Karp mentioned, is a driving force on political coverage for the upcoming election.
For people who don’t have the time to dig through dense news Web sites, sites such as Drudge give them the latest headlines and tell them where to find the most important news.
But link journalism also has its downfalls; it often drives heavy traffic to smaller news sources that cannot handle the influx of hits on their websites.
Last year, Drudge linked to local newspaper the Daily Breeze after it posted a video online of a woman being slapped in a courtroom. The video garnered so many hits off Drudge that the Daily Breeze’s server crashed.
In order for link journalism to be successful, large news sources need to link responsibly. Papers with reputations such as the New York Times need to make sure they are linking to sources with as equally reputable.
They also need to realize that linking out to other sources has repercussions, such as servers crashing. It’s no use linking to a site that readers can’t view.
In an effort to practice what I now preach, please look to the following Web site sto learn more about link journalism and how it can change the face of online media:
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