Jim Henley mentions something that’s long bugged me. Not only do print newspapers and magazines typically fail to provide you with URLs to studies and websites they reference (excusable only because sometimes those are long and ungainly, easier to Google than type in) but the online versions of those articles are almost invariably lacking hyperlinks. This makes no sense whatever, given the minimal work involved in tossing a few links into a piece that’s being posted anyway.

Presumably the folks behind these papers aren’t so obtuse as to be unaware of the possibility of adding links, nor is it plausible that the cost (at least for, say, the New York Times and other lesser but still-large pubs) of having someone assigned to do this is prohibitive. So what gives? I’m guessing that it’s an attempt to hold onto (what’s left of) the prestige of print. You’re not reading one more web piece, dammit (anyone can post those, after all), but a gen-u-ine published article that just happens to be archived online too. It’s time to get over it, guys.