The Ruthless Link Economy

I haven’t been able to shake this days-old post by Jeff Jarvis, journalism provocateur, bar none. I suspect he’s right about the only metric that counts in the new digital world. Here’s the essential graph:

Every minute of a journalist’s time will need to go to adding unique value to the news ecosystem: reporting, curating, organizing. This efficiency is necessitated by the reduction of resources. But it is also a product of the link and search economy: The only way to stand out is to add unique value and quality. My advice in the past has been: If you can’t imagine why someone would link to what you’re doing, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. And: Do what you do best and link to the rest. The link economy is ruthless in judging value.

Do what you do best and link to the rest.

Every journalist/blogger should chew on that line. I know I am and its giving me fits.