Chip Oglesby

On July 14th, I posed a simple question on twitter: Why not use bit.ly links in the newspaper?

Here’s the backstory to all of this. One day, i was reading the paper and I saw a line that read “For more info go to thestate.com” It looked a lot like this: This has long caused a very interesting discussion with our online department. Do people who actually read the paper go online to read an accompanying PDF or see a photo gallery?

This conversation always leaves me wanting two things. 1. A direct link to the story 2. A way to track if people are actually going to this “exclusive” content. That’s when it dawned on me, Why not use bit.ly? With bit.ly you get bot options! There’s a short link that and bit.ly provides analytics of how many people click on a link and when.

There are a few things to take into consideration, such as human error and broken links but there’s no reason this couldn’t be customized into your CMS. Since stories are usually put on the site before the paper goes to press for the first run, there should be ample time to create individual links to stories.

Seth Long took my idea and went into much more detail in his blog post and I encourage you to read it also.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts about this idea.

I would say welcome to my new blog, but if you look through the archives, I’ve actually been blogging for about two years on the blogger platform.

Don’t get me wrong, blogger is a great platform, but you’ve just got to know when to move on to bigger and better things.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of having my own site for about two years, but I’ve just never had the interest until now.

Why now? Well, since still and watching my friends and followers on twitter for over a year, I’m tired of not having the room, rhyme or reason to post something more than just a comment or reply on their website, it’s time for me to have my own creative domain.

So what can you expect from this site
Right now, you can expect about one blog post per week about a topic of my choice, but something usually relating to the future of journalism and what we can do to save it.

I know, plenty of people do that already and you’re probably asking yourself “Do we really need another freaking blog about saving journalism?” No, we don’t but then again, the blogosphere doesn’t have my “voice” so I may as well go ahead and add it to the ring.

Don’t worry, this blog won’t just be my boring ramblings, I’ll also be posting my photography here, just like I did on my old site but now it will all be in one convenient location.