However, as an inveterate Letter to the Editor writer, I find the inability to comment on stories more annoying.

The vast majority have no feedback mechanism, and I still haven’t found the official Letters to Editor email link.

Much as one may disagree with Miranda Devine, she does reply to feedback (as does Peter FitzSimmons) but that is via their own email accounts. And even then neither have a comments section.

The Telegraph, on the other hand, has comments and feedback for virtually every story.

The ability to interact with stories is, I believe, the webs big advantage.

Cheers

Steve

I’m happy for people to use Mumbrella in whatever way they find helpful! So long as you don’t mind me teasing you afterwards…

Cheers,

Tim

Perhaps we should start doing dedications…

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

how are you? Apart from Fairfax linking problems! Have moved on from Expedia and did a bunch of travelling around Australia. Have to thank your magazine for some great tips!

Cheers
Kristi

Yepo again. Our massive 100 Best Towns Coverage was linked by News and Ninemsn and everyone in between – but Fairfax, oh no.

And to make sure it is not just a print to digital conversation, they even obliterated our mastehad from their coverage so instead of Australian Traveller revealing the 100 Best Towns in Australia it was a panel of tourism experts and Australian Traveller mysteriously had nothing to do with it.

It’s the pettiness we, Nige and I, have come to love and respect form our former employers.

It has nothing to do with the fact they forgot to register travelandleisure.com.au before announcing their new and very increasingly costly venture to the market.

It took them 6 months to call me and then only to try and sue us and close us down. Thankfully their arrogance didn’t dissuade us.

The bloody incompetence of Fairfax is asotunding yet the marketers fall for it every time.

It will not last, no wonder everyone is selling down on Fairfax.

Cheers
Q

We recently recevied a call from one of the media co’s (i won’t say who) insisting that EVERY TIME we quote them they needed us to link to them.

I laughed and asked them on what grounds do we ‘have to’ do it EVERY time.

They said it was just good business practise. As they quote us a lot too I said, ‘fine, we will if you will’

They declined and hung up.

But take a look at the two examples I gave above. In one of them there were a dozen potential links. Yet only three were inserted, dotted through the piece, and to the only three Fairfax sites mentioned.

In the other it’s an item about parenting blogs, which originally ran in print. I’d buy the argument that there’s no time in the process of putting the stories up to add links (I know how busy the overnight shifts are, yet on very small staffs) – except somebody has taken the time to add a link – to a Fairfax site not even mentioned in the piece.

Cheers,

Tim

It’s a different matter for reports written first for online. And Tim, I’m guessing your Fairfax Deep Throat was a printie. There is no such policy in place. In fact, we are encouraged to link out. It’s just that the production process at night does not allow people the luxury of double-handling copy and inserting links.

The comment that eds had primary responsibility to put links on stories is in my long experience a fantasy. Sometimes subs would but the primary responsibility sat with the reporter (that’s not to say that eds wouldn’t just that they weren’t primarily responsible).

For those not in the “know” there is no one Fairfax. There is The Age, the SMH, Fairfax Digital, Fairfax Community Network and Fairfax Business Media. They mostly either hate or at best ignore each other.

However, jumping over to the Tech section and reading the article on the Extreme Sheep herding video, I just couldn’t seem to find a link to the video…..

Maybe this is all one big coincidence!