The Link Is the Message: It’s Time to Reverse the Polarity of the Internet for News

Back in the early days of online news, old-guard editors would not infrequently tell those of us building their websites that we were crazy to let anyone link to our stuff for free.

We would do our best not to smirk and would explain to them that linking was what the internet was all about; that those links drove readers to our website and our ads; that spreading our links ever farther and wider was the best marketing we could possibly imagine and was essential to our business model.

But they were right.

Well, they weren’t right 20 years ago. Our answer was absolutely correct at the time. If news organizations had refused to allow links, we would have been left behind. And the internet wouldn’t be what it is today.

Now, however, the Internet is mature, it’s ubiquitous, it’s essential — and it’s responsible for countless billions of dollars in revenue. But it’s the giant monopolistic aggregators who are making a killing.

By contrast, many of the providers of the internet’s best, timeliest, most informative, and most essential information are dying.

The problem is that, as it turns out, scanning the headline or reading the tweet is plenty for most readers. They don’t feel the…