How The Boston Globe Could Improve Their Website
Yesterday, one of my blog posts was featured in the Boston Globe. I’m really pleased by this, and I really like Scott Kirsner, who was kind enough to include me. And the Globe was kind enough to type out the name of my URL into both the newspaper and the website version.
Only, no link.
So yesterday (and today so far), my #1 link referrer was something in the India Times (which hey, thanks very much!). But the Boston Globe, which seems like it’d be a great source of traffic, is getting no credit whatsoever for sending me traffic (note: Google.com is sending me their people, I’m assuming).
This is the reverse of Steve Garfield’s common criticism that the Globe doesn’t credit bloggers very well. Instead, I’m complaining that the Globe isn’t getting credit FROM ME for giving me the love.
This is the Internet’s version of “If a tree falls.” According to my log traffic, the Boston Globe is less impacting of my blog than Twitter.
Wouldn’t links help this? I never knew I’d be talking about link journalism on this site, and yet, I think this is much bigger than we’re letting on.
So, it’s just my thought. What’s your take?
Newspapers Be Warned
If you’re a local newspaper or another outlet for classified ads, consider this photo to the left of the post a warning shot across your bow. With Facebook’s ability to target us by locality, and with a fairly inexpensive ad rate, why should I look for the younger generation in your print edition *or* your hard-to-navigate online version? Go where the market is, friends. That’s the word of the day.
And if you are a newspaper, looking to stay relevant, here’s a strange thought to consider: what if you atomized and started chasing down the eyeballs, instead of asking the eyeballs to come to you? What would that look like? What if my local paper started running articles in my Facebook news stream, or in my RSS reader, or somewhere else that I’m likely to visit? Hmmm.
Atomized media publications. Might be something.
