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Monday, April 18, 2016

Boston Globe Newspaper Neglects to Link to Online Site Mentioned in Article

In a time when newspapers are trying to figure out how to engage an audience that has largely moved online, The Boston Globe continues to ignore this online audience in the print edition of the newspaper.

Regular readers of this blog know that I've been complaining about this for years. When a newspaper article is written about a website, the Boston Globe usually neglects to mention a link to the website. Readers are left having to use Google to search for the site online.

Over the years, the online version of the newspaper has gotten better, adding hyperlinks to article where required, but the link between the physical newspaper, the Boston Globe website, and the internet at large is still broken.

Here's an example from today, detailing a treasure trove of photo negatives of former mayor of Boston James Michael Curley, which have been put online.

NEWSPAPER

Image: Boston Globe Print article courtesy Boston Globe

The print article says this:
Now, with help from the Boston Public Library, the images, dating from 1934 to 1958, have been digitized and posted online.
Guess I'll have to get out the old Google to find that. ;-)

ONLINE

Image: BostonGlobe.com Online article courtesy Boston Globe

The online version of the article at BostonGlobe.com, does a better job by adding lots of links, include the money link to the archive:
Now, with help from the Boston Public Library, the images, dating from 1934 to 1958, have been digitized and posted online.

DIGITAL COMMONWEALTH SITE

Image: James Michael Curley negatives website screenshot courtesy Digital Commonwealth

Digital Commonwealth.
James Michael Curley photo negative collection.

UPDATE:

Some easy solutions for the Boston Globe print edition to implement.

1. Add a simple link to the website that you are talking about: "...digitized and posted online at http://digitalcommonwealth.org"

2. Add a custom link, that's easy for readers to type: "View online: http://bit.ly/CurleyNegatives"

3. Add a QR code for people to scan with their smartphone:


View online: http://bit.ly/CurleyNegatives