The Purpose of Linking

What is the purpose of linking for bloggers, newspapers, etc? Jay Rosen discusses the Washington Post taking on a new media in the hopes of increasing their number of readers and gain extra profit from advertising for others. He then discusses a rule of theirs; “You don’t send people away from your domain”. Because of that rule, it does not match the ethic of the web; connecting people to knowledge where ever it is.

In Jeff Jarvis’ article New rule: Cover what you do best. Link to the rest, he discusses newspapers and their websites. “In the rearchitecture of news, what needs to happen is that people are driven to the best coverage, not the 87th version of the same coverage.” If we cannot offer better information on a topic someone else has already covered, then we can present it effectively by way of linking.

With good curating and reliable links, bloggers can keep their audiences coming back.

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