The Wardman Wire

Returning to a subject I’ve covered a couple of times, I see that today the Independent has more non-celebrity linkbait headlines in it’s Editor’s Choice section.

Just to remind you what Joy Lo Dico said about the other papers 10 days ago:

“With Martin Clarke, a hardball Associated Newspapers veteran at the tiller, the website isn’t scared of putting celebrity above the fold, digitally speaking.”

“The Telegraph, too, is not ashamed of using celebrity content or quirkies, another favourite of the big blogs, to drive traffic.”

Today’s Super-Duper-Sober Independent Selection

These are the headlines in the “carousel” on the front page, the file name of the web page with the article, and the headline on the article.

[Update: I've removed the filenames to avoid breaking the page template layout.]

All of these three items are important for attracting search engines.

• Wall-E: Hollywood’s brightest new star
  Wall-E: One giant beep for mankind
  (A cartoon about a lonely robot. What? Louis Theroux goes mechanical, maybe?)
• Dancing dork takes YouTube by storm
  YouTube’s greatest hit: One man and the web’s most watched video
  (Where the Hell is Matt III.)
• Harnessing the energy of bouncing breasts
  Bionic bra: Victoria’s circuit
  (Size does matter when charging your Ipod via boob-bounce. Bigger breasts for a better boombox.)
• The Ten Best Summer Jackets
  The Ten Best Summer Jackets
  (What it says. Unknown whether designed to accommodate bionic bra.)
• New rules for naming celebrity babies
  The name game: The new celebrity baby naming rules
  (”Imagine you are an idiot. Proceed.“)
  (Good article though: “Sunday Kidman will never be able to marry Calum Best.”)
• At home with Artist Molly Parkin
  Good golly, Miss Molly: At home with Molly Parkin
  (Molly Parkin and her house.)
• The pick of the property market
  Six To View - pick of the property market
  (Posh houses.)
• Pub closures: The spirit of change
  Pub closures: The spirit of change
  (Pubs made into posh houses.)
• How to think yourself better
  How to think yourself better
  (Self-improvement wibbling.)
• Independent straight to your desktop
  Get headlines delivered direct your desktop with The Independent reader
  (Puff for desktop headline reading widget.)

No linkbait or frivolity there, then. All hard news - good.

Latest: Bats in the Bra-fry

Incidentally, there also happens to be a “latest” story about “Teenager finds bat in her bra“. I’ll not say anything except that to note it was in the regional press online at 10am yesterday, and on the Telegraph website just after lunch yesterday. Google News has the story actually starting on July 7th, i.e., Monday.

Cover it by all means, but “latest” - please!

The explanation in this case is that the story has gone through the magic Press Association delay loop. They should be catching things like that, however.

Wrapping-up

Hmmmm.