Eagle Editors Share Links With Users

Visitors to the ReadingEagle.com can now see the websites and online articles catching the eyes of journalists.

Section editors, designers and photographers are among the Eagle staffers regularly posting and sharing links online via the What We’re Reading section.



Users can view an array of links on the group page or can click through to the individual’s page to see profiles and more links.



The initiative has been created using the recently launched Publish2 link journalism application from Scott Karp.

Writing on his blog, Karp says the activities at the Eagle show how online newspapers can incorporate link journalism and news aggregation services into their traditional offerings.

The author of Publishing 2.0 spoke to the site’s administrative editor to ascertain the aims behind the project.

John Boor said “We’re hoping to increase our site traffic in our own, smaller way, using the model of The Drudge Report, and others who, essentially, create success by being mega-aggregators.”

He added that the links pages provide the Eagle with an opportunity “to inject more personality into the site”.

“We’re hoping that people will connect with staffers’ faces or names they’ve seen, and maybe keep checking back to see what one of their favorites thinks is important enough to share.”

The Publish2 application also enables users to post their links to social media websites such as Twitter, and Boor noted that this helps journalists to “cast wide, digital nets in an effort to build a sense of community with our news site as the hub”.

Boor concluded: “We’re no longer the gatekeepers. We’re stepping out onto the public square and sharing stories that are important to us and hoping they may help others.”