The ethic of the link layer on news
A few shows ago, On the Media reported on a revolt against the Associated Press in Ohio, where papers across the state are trading and publishing each others’ original stories rather than sending them through the AP homogenizer. There are a few important implications in this, one about the fate of the AP and the other about an ethic I think news organizations must adopt to link to and promote original journalism.
In the ecosystem of links and the new architecture of news that it spawns, I believe it is vital that we as an industry find ways to point to and give credit to original reporting. That is how original journalism will be supported, in the end: by monetizing the audience that comes to it, whether through advertising or contributions.
This leads to a new Golden Rule of Links in journalism — link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto your good stuff. This emerges from blogging etiquette but is exactly contrary to the old, competitive ways of news organizations: wasting now-precious resources matching competitors’ stories so you could say you’d done it yourself. That must change.
This ethic of the link will become all the more important as news organizations pare down to their essence. I’ve said often that they will have to do what they do best and link to the rest.
And I believe that it will become important for us to link to our sources and influences — as well as transcripts and additional reporting — to show readers how we arrived where we have in a story. When I was last in London, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger called this footnoting a story. He’s better educated than I; I’ll call it linkboxing.
Add that together and we end up with a new link layer atop the news: links to original reporting; links to complementary reporting; links to sources (not to mention links to and from discussions). It’s part of the new architecture of news that I wrote and doodled about here. Upendra Shardanand, the founder of Daylife (where I am a partner), wrote about it here, arguing that the key to the new architecturer is superior navigation to news.
This is why I got excited about working on Daylife, because I believe it provides key infrastructure for this link layer: It allows sites to link to the world’s coverage of a topic — so they can link to the rest and so they can put stories in context — and it also sends traffic to journalism. One thing we’re working on is finding ways to get better at sending traffic to journalism at its source. There are a few algorithmic solutions to see who was early in on a story, but this is also where the ethic of the link also comes in: If everyone links to — not just attributes but links to — the Washington Post’s coverage of Walter Reed then it will make it easier to find where stories begin. We should expose credit where credit is due.
The link layer is also why I got involved with Publish2, sitting on its board, because it will provide the platform for that linkboxing. I say all this not just to plug two companies in which I have an interest but to show that there is a method to my madness. I want to be involved in building of the new architecture of news.
So now I return to the Associated Press. This new ecology of news is what’s at work in Ohio. By running other papers’ stories, the newsrooms are participating in a print version of linking to original journalism. Importantly, these stories are not going through the AP mill, being rewritten under an AP style and brand (which its contract with papers allows because the AP is a cooperative). Instead, now the original stories are getting more attention across the state.
Susan Goldberg, editor of the Plain Dealer, told Bob Garfield on OtM: “I think it’s a lot better because we can get the stories faster. Nobody is rewriting them. … We don’t really need that function.” And later: “I frankly think we’re getting better, more distinctively written stories because they’re not going through the AP mill. But I also think that it does allow us to make some smarter choices. We, and everybody else, have smaller staffs than we used to, and we’ve got to pick some priorities.”
What she’s saying, to translate into Buzzmachinese, is that they’re doing what they does best and linking to the rest and they are linking to original journalism: the new architecture at work.
I have no doubt the Goldberg-Garfield interview caused a hard gulp down the street from me at AP HQ, where they’re dealing with budget-choked newspapers complaining about rates. That is what this little revolt is really about. These dissidents are not trying to kill the AP; they depend upon it more now that their staffs are shrinking. But one wonders what a world looks like with a shrunken AP or, God forbid, without one.
Does the AP possibly become more of a curator of original stories than a reprocessing mill? What reporting does it still need to do complement the work that local papers do best? Do they still need state wires and bureaux or can papers indeed go it alone? As papers inevitably become more local, will they — should they — even bother with national and international news or should they just link to it via smart aggregation?
How does competitor Reuters play into this? Is it in a better position because it is not hampered as a cooperative and is building a consumer brand? I’ve talked about a reverse syndication model as a new opportunity, which was actually sprung from a talk with an AP executive but it is Reuters that is executing on it (rather than syndicating its content to Yahoo, Reuters is now sending them headlines, Yahoo sends Reuters traffic, and Reuters shares the revenue that results; this is linking with money attached). What does a combination of Reuters’ original reporting and, say, Daylife’s aggregation provide in covering the rest of the world?
This gets even more complex when journalism busts out of its professional fence and it is practiced by many people in many places: the ecosystem only explodes. The AP acknowledges that new structure in its deal with Now Public and Reuters does likewise in its deal with Global Voices.
The transformation of news is obviously not as simple as taking print stories and putting them online and even getting fancy adding video and comments. This transformation is happening at a fundamental, architectural level that has impact we are only beginning to figure out.
But out of this discussion, I’d like to start here: with a discussion of the ethic of the link in journalism.
: LATER: In my email, I just got a link to an important study the AP conducted on news use in the next generation. The PDF of the presentation is here (I don’t see a link to the PR yet). The AP’s Jim Kennedy told my students at CUNY about this. They propose a new model of multiple entry points into news — a new way to look at the process — around facts, updates, background, and followup.
Note well that the AP is trying to get its industry to think ahead and rearchitect news but that’s no easy job.
: Reading the AP study… One of the most intriguing findings is that young people use news to build social capital (to converse or to impress).
Tags: daylife, journalism, newarchitecture, newbiznews
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:32 am
“Reuters original reporting” This isn’t strictly true. A lot of what goes out on the wire (both RTRS and AFP) is actually lifted from local papers or national news wires that each bureau is responsible for monitoring. These rewrites are rarely credited and let alone linked too.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:54 am
[...] why that coincidence came to mind this morning as I read Jeff Jarvis’s latest thoughts on cross-pollenation in journalism: This leads to a new Golden Rule of Links in journalism — link unto others’ good stuff as you [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
There is a very clear correlation between “do what they do best and link to the rest” and a vast amount of economic theory dealing with Free Trade, Globalisation, etc.
Organizations that avoid out-links are very much like countries that erect high import tariff barriers in an attempt to establish an autarky (i.e. self-sufficient, closed economy). In almost all cases, while there may be short-term benefits from establishing import tariffs, history teaches us that the long-term effects are generally negative — not only for the closed economy but for the world at large. Those who seek autarky are forced to expend scarce resources not only on the things that they do best, but also on those things that they do not do as well as others. The result is lower than optimal efficiency within the autarky. The establishment of autarky also causes inefficiency in the global economy since some countries are forced to invest in things that would be most efficiently provided by those in the autarky.
Rational actors in any economy, if they have a long-term perspective, will focus on what they do best and leave the rest to others. The result, if they do so, is that everyone receives the highest return for work expended. In the long term, both the global and local maximum are achieved through free trade — or free linking.
bob wyman
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
this link love doesn’t happen with local news sites and tv websites
local new york site nypost.com won’t link to nytimes.com
it don’t matter google news has it all. they are the biggest linkwhores and it works
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
[...] BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » The ethic of the link layer on news “The transformation of news is obviously not as simple as taking print stories and putting them online and even getting fancy adding video and comments. This transformation is happening at a fundamental, architectural level…” (tags: journalism,) [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[...] The ethic of the link layer on news - Applying "link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto your good stuff" to news orgs. [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 am
Jeff - do you believe the link ethic is the best doorway to get news organizations to adopt or is it better to educate on the value of links in Google’s eyes?
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:08 am
I’ve just written about the Manchester Evening News using Twitter to highlight it’s own ‘green’ campaign but also to use it to point to other news stories around the web.
Their Twitter feed is at: http://twitter.com/mengreenlife
Always believed that being the ‘editor’ of a subject and not locking people in is one of the best ways to gain credibility, links and ultimately readership.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:34 am
[...] The ethic of the link layer on news, Jeff Jarvis [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] Jeff Jarvis on the “Golden Rule of Links in journalism” — “link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto your good stuff. This emerges from blogging etiquette but is exactly contrary to the old, competitive ways of news organizations: wasting now-precious resources matching competitors’ stories so you could say you’d done it yourself. That must change.” Here. [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
Jjeff –
You will be astonished to learn that a journalistic format as stodgy and traditional as can be, the network nightly newscast, got link happy last night. Brian Williams’ closing feature on NBC Nightly News was an animal story — women prison inmates training puppies to be service dogs for PTSD veterans — that he had seen as streaming video on The New York Times‘ site. In the old days, network reporters would have used the Times coverage as a lead and re-reported it before airing the story. Instead NBC aired the NYT package complete with its giant gothic T dingbat in the lower right. In its online manifestation, interestingly, msn.com streams the video itself, complete with NYT logo, in its NBC Nightly News and does not send viewers to the Times’ site.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
[...] The ethic of the link layer on news. Jeff Jarvis makes so much sense in this post. There’s too much here for a quick summary, so I’ll just point and hope that you go read. [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
[...] BuzzMachine » The ethic of the link layer on news This leads to a new Golden Rule of Links in journalism — link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto your good stuff. This emerges from blogging etiquette but is exactly contrary to the old, competitive ways of news organizations: wa (tags: media journalism) [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
[...] The ethic of the link layer on newsSo now I return to the Associated Press. This new ecology of news is whats at work in Ohio. By running other papers stories, the newsrooms are participating in a print version of linking to original journalism. … [...]
June 4th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
The Wall Street Journal today (June 4) had an interesting article about the Washington Post’s disappointing results from the hyperlocal LoundounExtra.com which focuses on Loudoun County VA in the Washington suburbs. One of the most fascinating statements was this:
“whenever a big story breaks involving Loudoun County, the Post typically publishes it on WashingtonPost.com without a link to LoudounExtra.com. That deprives LoudounExtra of potential traffic. Nor does the Washington Post’s own dedicated Loudoun County page send visitors directly to its online sibling. In September, when Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit announced it was moving its headquarters from Dulles, Va. to New York, the Post linked to the story on LoudounExtra.com for a couple hours before moving the story back to its own site. That window of promotion fueled the Loudoun site’s best traffic day to date…”
This is ridiculous. The Washington Post won’t even link between its *own* properties!
bob wyman
June 5th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
If the AP is taken out of the loop, who is going to make sure that liberals and liberal causes are always applauded?
June 7th, 2008 at 6:41 am
[...] in Web tagged Journalism, News, Web at 9:41 pm by Andrew McMillen Jeff Jarvis writes about the idea of link layers within news stories, based upon blog etiquette: …a new Golden [...]
June 10th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
[...] I learn from Craig Newmark that Pro Publica, the new and independent investigative journalism enterprise, has launched. What’s particularly nice is that they will not only investigate on their own — with their staff of 20 journalists so far — but are also aggregating, following, and commenting on other investigative journalism available on the web. This is about journalism’s link layer and sending audience to journalism at its source. [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
[...] Yes, it has a right to reproduce reporting from member news organizations. But as I point out here, the AP is hurting original reporting by not crediting and linking to the journalism at its source. [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
[...] Yes, it has a right to reproduce reporting from member news organizations. But as I point out here, the AP is hurting original reporting by not crediting and linking to the journalism at its source. [...]
June 14th, 2008 at 11:00 am
[...] This will support journalism at its source. As I’ve written here, it is vital that we link to original journalism so it can receive traffic, audience, branding, [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 9:38 am
[...] Yes, it has a right to reproduce reporting from member news organizations. But as I point out here, the AP is hurting original reporting by not crediting and linking to the journalism at its source. [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
[...] PayPerPosty: selling out and devaluing our credibility. That’s why we don’t do it. Our link ethic would not allow [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 10:53 am
[...] — very PayPerPosty: selling out and devaluing our credibility. That’s why we don’t do it. Our link ethic would not allow [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 8:28 pm
[...] Here is a discussion from “buzzmachine” on the “ethics of the link layer” in journalism, including blogger journalism, here. [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Jeff, apologies for not sending this earlier - a link to one of the new “Daylife” pages on the new Sky News site:
http://indepth.news.sky.com/InDepth/topic/Barack_Obama
There are many more like this which you find via stories or the home page.
As you know news organisations find the concept of outbound links very difficult to stomach, so this is pretty revolutionary stuff! It will be interesting to see whether the concept spreads.
Disclosure: Jeff introduced Sky to Daylife (though we were already looking at the idea). So thanks for that, too.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
[...] The other issue here is the “ethic of the link.” [...]
August 8th, 2008 at 8:58 am
[...] content and why newspapers didn’t get it. In describing Jeff Jarvis’s “ethic of the link,” Jay Rosen makes a vital point about why newspapers flailed and largely failed online for [...]
August 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am
[...] his blog BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis mentioned an ethnography study recently completed by the AP. Worried about loss of print readership (to aging and digital distribution), they looked at the [...]
August 12th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
[...] left on the cutting room floor or literally tossed in the trash. The other issue here is the “ethic of the link.” The Atlantic created economic value for itself by Nick’s effort to synthesize a great many [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] More thoughts on the importance of linkage. [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 10:11 am
[...] Good bloggers observe the ethic of the link. [...]
October 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
[...] Jeff Jarvis’s Golden Rule of Links [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] brings us back to the “ethic of the link,” a concept first expressed by Jeff Jarvis and repeated by him often as one of the central [...]