NewYorkTimes.com Whine

At the Hyperlinked Society conference last ast month, Martin Nisenholtz said to look for increased out-linking from the website. Today’s Digital Domain column by Randall Stross, on corporate blogging, seemed like a prime opportunity for the Times to spread its out-linking wings, but, unfortunately, if you want to read Jonathan Schwartz’s or John Mackey’s blogs, which are featured in the article, you’re on your own.

Continuing my Times whine: how much click-through do side bars like “This Week in History” and columnists’ “Classics” generate? Are there many people cllciking on the link to a 1984 story on the first Russian woman to walk in space, or on Maureen Dowd’s 1997 column on debutante balls?

While I’m on my Times.com soapbox, I’m happy to report that their videos productions are vastly improved– the talking heads and Ken Burns-style moving photo collages seem to have given way to video. The sound still is a problem, at least on the Congo election piece I tried to watch. On the other hand, About.com led me to this “music minute,” on my old Grove House co-habitator John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. It’s comprised solely of moving photos and Kelefa Sanneh’s talking head, demonstrating there is still a plenty of space for Times innovation.

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