ian reeves. keep them on our site we’ll provide everything they need don’t link anywhere...

Ian Reeves

•Keep them on our site•We’ll provide everything they need•Don’t link anywhere external•Particularly not to competitors•‘Stickyness’ is important•Ideally, get them to subscribe•Keep them within our walled garden

If a piece of content has no links… Is it like a tree falling in the forest?

If nobody is there to hear it fall, does it make a sound?

•The link is a central part of the model•Understand that we can’t do everything•Do what we do best, link to the rest•The more we send them away, the more they will come back•As long as we send them somewhere sensible•The more links we put in, the more we get back•And the higher our search engine rank

UK news sites now average around 450 links on their home pages, whereas 10 years ago they averaged just 12 links per home page

content

You control your content and sell or syndicate it to other sitesSame

Content£

Same Content

£

SameContent

£

SameContent

£

sell

sell

sell

sell

You own and control the content, in some cases discouraging others from linking to itPerhaps use a pay wallYou sell or syndicate to other sitesSeveral copies of the content will existYou make money at the edgesThe content creates the valueThe iTunes model

Content££££

website

website

website

website

website

Link

LinkLi

nk

website

website

website

website

Link L

ink

Link Lin

k

Link

Link

•One copy of the content•Many links to it•Make money at the centre, e.g from ads•Links create value too•Embed the content (with ads and branding)

Golden Rule: Send them away and they’ll keep coming back

Prime example?

•In some cases, the list of links about certain stories become the most viewed pages on the site.•Scott Karp: … links aren’t just a fundamental element of the reporting. Links can BE the reporting.

They are no longer gatekeepersNews is no longer a one-way lectureNews is now more like a conversationThey can’t control where users discuss their work

They have to think of news as a process rather than as a product

•Monetising the value from those links isn’t happening fast enough•The vast majority of the value gets captured by aggregators linking and scraping rather than by the news organizations that get linked and scraped.•Return of the paywall – Murdoch. But where will that lead?

Jeff Jarvis – the Link EconomyScott Karp – publishing 2.0Nieman Lab on newspapers’ link failure/Jay Rosen on linkingTen commandments of link-buildingNew York Times on the link economyJeff Jarvis – f urther studies on links