Media companies should link more

It’s borderline insane what’s going on at big media companies when they are more than reluctant to distribute content to 3rd party sites including social networking sites.

Of course I know that they are worried about advertising, but still it’s amazing how they fail to learn from the one player, who really got this right.

Yes, of course it’s Google, I’m talking about. Google does nothing but send people away to search results. And yet people keep coming back. Why? Because Google’s service is useful.

What would happen if mainstream media decided to distribute outside of their own realm? Traffic to their own website would explode, I think. Why? Because in the maelstrom of content out there, quality and brand wins. If I see a big media brand out there, and I like their content, wouldn’t I be more likely to go directly to the source the next time? And the next time again? And so on.

I think so. And this is precisely why media companies should link more.