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[ # ] Why I Should Never Link to the StarTribune.com
January 28th, 2008 under Media


The Minneapolis StarTribune is my favorite Minnesota newspaper and also my favorite newspaper to hate to love. Why? Because they keep screwing The Deets’s readers by breaking links.

How so?

I recently installed a plugin on The Deets that reports links within posts that no longer work.

What did it find?

The StarTribune has created more broken links to The Deets than any other site.

What am I talking about?

Let’s say I find an interesting news story at StarTribune.com. I decide to write about it and link to the story I’m citing. A month or more goes by. Suddenly, the link to the original story stops working, so visitors to The Deets can’t click through to read the original story.

StarTribune.com 404 Error Page

The site, in many cases, doesn’t even tell you whether the story can be purchased. It just throws up the error message shown above.

From my perspective, the StarTribune’s behavior is hurting my reader’s experiences. Why should I link to a site that isn’t interested in serving my readers? I shouldn’t.

So, until the StarTribune changes their link destroying policy I’m going to try to go out of my way to find alternative sites to link to after reading stories I originally found in the StarTribune. While the StarTribune may be my original source for a story, I simply can’t continue to knowingly link to a site that destroys links over time. While that may be acceptible behavior at the StarTribune, that’s no way for me to treat my readers.


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    Read the Comments

    [ # 4412 ] Comment from Justin [January 28, 2008, 8:13 am]

    It’s almost as if the Strib fails to recognize that they make their money by advertising. You’d think they’d want to get their content out to as many eyeballs as possible, to also get the advertising out to as many eyeballs as possible.

    But hey, what the hell do I know. Maybe they get kicks from annoying the shit out of their readers.

    [ # 4413 ] Comment from Aaron [January 28, 2008, 8:36 am]

    Here here!

    [ # 4420 ] Comment from MN Headhunter/Paul DeBettignies [January 28, 2008, 2:59 pm]

    Ed,

    Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com) does the same. I have been linking to MPR, they archive their stories.

    P.

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