Media links out to draw readers in

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• The idea of link journalism is gaining traction with traditional media. 
  
• Newspapers in particular lost the ability to set the news, as aggregators such as The Drudge Report took over.
  
• Linking allows sites to filter content and provide context for readers.
• When news sites incorporate more links, it might cause huge changes in the online media economy.
  

After years of trying to keep readers solely on their respective Web sites, traditional news media are finally experimenting with links. By linking to outside news sources, the media hope their audiences will leave their sites but return in large numbers.

This trend of link journalism, or the practice of linking to related reporting or sources on the Web, is becoming increasingly common for newspapers, television station Web sites and magazines. 

With the popularity of linking sites such as the Drudge Report, a news aggregation site, and research that shows that readers come back to news filters they trust, more media Web sites are willing to add more links to their pages, even if they connect people to outside news organizations.


Stuck in the Past

With more and more media consumers getting their information from the Internet, the more traditional news media — newspaper, TV stations and magazines — began to place their content on the Web as well.

The media tried to gain revenue from their sites by placing ads on their pages. It was supposed that the longer a person stayed on a page, the site would make more money.

Scott Karp, the editor, publisher and creator of Publishing 2.0, a blog about how technology is transforming the media, wrote that media sites refused to link out of their own content because they feared losing their audience, and therefore lose their revenue. 

"First, you shouldn’t send people away or else they won’t come back to your site. Second, a page with links that sends people away has low engagement, which doesn’t serve advertisers well."

Karp argues that traditional media needs to get rid of their old content-driven mindset. He said that media sites should think like Google, the leading search engine on the Internet.

"[Google's] all about sending people away, and it does such a good job of it that people keep coming back for more."

Topsy-Turvy

In the meantime, traditional media lost track of what had made them great — setting the day's news talking points. 

Karp wrote in his blog that the newspaper's front page had always been the trendsetter for the day. But on the Internet, news aggregators gave the talking points.

Sites such as The Drudge Report reigned supreme. The Drudge site was a simple page filled with links and updated them throughout the day. It did exactly what the newspapers feared — and its numbers are through the roof. In fact, Drudge drove people to the news sites.

A blogger for ReadWriteWeb, a Web technology blog, wrote that readers prefer these news aggregators.

"Because the content is being vetted by an editor, readers can assume that they're being directed only to relevant, non-redundant reporting."

News Filter

When the news of the world is at your fingertips, what readers wanted was a news filter. And rather than editing the news for the public, newspapers and other Web sites ignored the stories outside of their own realm, saying that other sites were not credible.

The Drudge Report stepped in and gave readers the filtering they wanted. They trusted the site to give them the news they needed to know. So when readers left the site to visit new links they would come back to see what new stories had popped up.

Traditional media Web sites have yet to fully grasp this notion. You rarely see the Los Angeles Times linking to the Chicago Tribune. Some sites do have Associated Press stories, but many of those are articles that are contained within the website and does not lead to an outside source. 

Context Giver

The almost unlimited space of the Internet and the availability of links means media Web sites have no excuse when it comes to giving readers more context. 

Karp wrote in another blog entry that if a story references what someone did or when something happened to the past, the article should link to the past story. 

To support the assertion that concerns over McCain’s ethics have a long back story, which voters in 2008 should know about, what better than actually linking to the body of reporting that covered this story in the past?

Not only would it support the story and give it credibility, but readers would also be given context, which can be very important when it comes to a controversial or confusing topic. 

Again, traditional media sites have been slow to change, although there are some bright spots. The New York Times reported that it would soon launch a version of its site with an "alternative front page with links to competitors." The Political Browser on the Washington Post site includes links to what's "good on the web."

So What?

In the online world, the brand name is important. When The New York Times or the Washington Post say a story is important, the audience will follow. Karp wrote that once these newspaper Web sites link to other sites, they will drive traffic, much in the same way the Drudge Report does now, but possibly in larger numbers. 

This will increase traffic for the linked sites, but will also increase the amount of user interactivity on the originator's sites as well as the number of visitors on the site, as people will be returning to see the new links. 

In addition, link journalism can help writers attribute their sources more succinctly by simply placing a link on the site. This can also help with disclosure clauses, which can be awkward for TV news on-air. But online, a simple sentence will do. 

And what will happen to the news wires, such as The Associated Press and Reuters, which are used many times by websites as stories that they host on their own pages? Perhaps they will phase out, as Karp suggests. Already the Tribune company is in talks to cancel its contract with The Associated Press, although the company has not yet given a specific reason why it wants to end its subscription. 

But that time is long in coming, as the traditional media is still experimenting rather than embracing link journalism. 

Related Links:

• Publishing 2.0
• Definition of Link Journalism