Following a series of posts looking at external linking on news sites, Guardian information architect Martin Belam uses the BBC as a case study for outlining how the company has experimented with linking over the years.
In an earlier post, he outlined cases in which news publishers should ensure links are included:
There are several clear use cases where additional links on news stories should be added as a matter of course, though – stories that reference medical or scientific reports, stories that reference published consultation papers, stories where quotes and pictures are sourced directly from the web, and stories specifically about websites.
In the latest post on the topic, he discusses how links on the BBC’s news website today appear a low priority.
So far, with the recent BBC News redesign, it remains the fact that external links are kept away from the body of an article. Actually, arguably they have been demoted, since whereas they used to appear in the side panel of a story, they now appear at the foot of the page.
Earlier this month, director of BBC Future Media and Technology Erik Huggers pledged to double the amount of external linking by BBC News Online.