Saul Hansell has it right
Today Saul Hansell has a post “What I’ve Learned as a Blogger for the NYT”
It’s very good piece. He cites the value of reader feedback and the larger coversation. Absolutely, that’s right in my view.
He also states that blogs are different because they link to other blogs and competitive sites. Saul writes:
“First of all, blogs are part of a conversation. We link liberally to others, even our direct competitors.”
That’s critical to build a valuable experience. The days of all the newspaper’s content being kept inside a walled garden a thing of the past.
I’d like to see the rest of the NYT have the same view. I don’t see any links to external sites on the “non-blog” parts of the NYT. And that is an opportunity lost.
Inform, a Spark portfolio company, is helping other newspaper/media companies with contextual links automatically. My colleague Rob Go has a post on how this works here.
