Posting links

I'm part of a Web redesign team at my paper that includes much more than just design. A question was posed in a blogging discussion today that I wanted to post here and get some thoughts.

The hits on a sports blog we have shot through the roof (relative to that blog's normal traffic) one day this past week when linked to a fan site. That didn't surprise me. Traffic jumps on stories or blogs are often from getting linked to some outside site.

The question posed: Why then don't we link more of our stories to fan/outside sites?

Initial reaction was pretty much along the lines of NO. Some said it isn't right some said it is too self serving. But if the point is to get the story to readers, why not? Fan sites or message boards like this don't shy away from linking stories, but is it different if it is the paper itself that does it?

I think its fair to say most good beat writers probably do some judicious monitoring of fan sites already. If a topic they wrote about shows up, and the writer identifies himself properly, is posting a story on another site OK?

Thoughts?

 

It might depend on the nature of the blog. If it's a general baseball blog, I think the minute you link to a fan site, you're recommending that the people reading your blog take on the fandom of that certain team. As such, you then indirectly admit sponsorship to a certain team.

If it's the blog by a staff writer who covers the New York Jets and links to a New York Jets fan site, I think that's slightly more acceptable, with the reasonable assumption that fans are reading your stuff in the first place and that it's a natural progression to help them out. But even then, there's a certain degree of endorsement that comes about that you might not want to get yourself involved in.

As for responding on fan sites as a writer regarding the topic, don't do it. You'll open a whole can of worms that will get vicious and nasty as soon as you write something they don't like. It will happen. Hell, I know writers who have usernames on fan sites that are in the form of FirstInitial.LastName and get enough hell for it because they can't proclaim ignorance any longer.

 

Just a couple weeks ago, I registered for a Packers message board to post the Favre leaning towards coming back story we broke. I don't see anything wrong with it, and it provably and demonstrably increases traffic in that kind of one-off situation. Don't see any problem with that.

I think we ought to be encouraging fan sites/message boards to include RSS feeds to our stuff, as well. Beats the hell outta the ol' C&P with no traffic.

 

I would be annoyed if newspapers around the country started posting blog and story links on this site. I don't see a difference between that an the 'effin studs who post their own "brilliant" stories on here in hope of being "discovered."

 

I post some links to my stories on high school football sites. I do it under my name and I don't comment on the thread, just put it there for information purposes. I figure it is OK because there is so much misinformation on those sites that it is a good thing to get facts out there.

 

For some reason, I'm moderately uncomfortable with us going out and putting our links on fan sites. And remember, be careful what you wish for. They might find something wrong with the story and then all sorts of things can happen.

We link the other way all the time, of course. We used to never link outside of our site. But no more.

 

I agree.

I can't figure out a real good argument against it other than it just don't feel right. If that is all I can tell our group, thouh, I suppose our paper will likely start urging (it won't ever become a requirement) bloggers and beat writers to start linking stories to relevant sites.