Detroit Concerts
Real Detroit Weekly Makes Complete And Utter Internet Fail!
Look out Metro Times, Real Detroit Weekly has “redesigned” their web site (maybe next year you’ll have to give them an award). Now, I have to say that this “redesign” may be the dumbest move in the history of the Internet. You see, Real Detroit has replaced their whole site with a new “oh so uncool” and hard to use web reader application. Now, the geniuses at Real Detroit Weekly failed to understand one important little thing: the Internet is all about hyper-linking, and Google is all about understanding that hyper-linking and that, in turn, is how people find your articles. But now, because some “big wig” over at Real Detroit Weekly has his or her head up their ass, the publication not only blew out all of their past online articles (which has broken thousands of archived links at MotocityRocks.com), but web sites such as ours will never be able to link to an article from Real Detroit Weekly again, because the site they have up now does not actually contain hard link urls (thank God for Deep Cutz).
Now, I don’t know a soul at Real Detroit Weekly, but I do know many people who work for Internet companies like Google, and I’m pretty sure they would all agree with me when I say, “YOU ARE DUMB REAL DETROIT WEEKLY, OH SO DUMB!” Also, if you think this is going to make me pick up a copy of your magazine now, well, you’re dead wrong!
JasperMay 5, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I dig it. Now I can just go here to see what bands are on what bills since most venues don’t keep their website information current.
I suppose this might be an issue for anyone who reads the paper for its actual not-advertisement content, but I think you’re the only person I know who does.
andrewdisplayMay 5, 2009 at 8:34 pm
It’s pretty cool. The old version was kind of bland, and loaded slowly for me. I guess the old articles being down is kind of lame, but not enough so to say “YOU ARE DUMB REAL DETROIT WEEKLY, OH SO DUMB!”, I mean really Dave, are you that pissed off about this?
Dr. DetroitMay 5, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Andrew,
Whoever thought up this idea is “really dumb” and is digging the papers own grave. Traditional print is in trouble and by side stepping the internet instead of embracing it with a new, killer Real Detroit Weekly web site is completely insane. In the 60′s and 70′s movie studios would not work with TV (who were eating into their profits). Finally in the late 80′s they learned to make a buck on TV instead of fighting it. That is just one classic example the current MP3 record label issue is another.
I’m pretty sure that this famous Michigan native would agree with me with my assessment of their decision.
My prediction… I give it two years tops before they fire whoever did this and go full blown web (with hyper links.)
Jasper,
You do make a good point on that, but that is a small part of their audience. Good for people like us who keep up on shows, bad for them (maybe) – only time will tell. Breaking the links and all the Google juice was dumb though.
Bryan Metro Chipped His ToothMay 6, 2009 at 8:00 am
Google Juice!
Dr2May 6, 2009 at 8:08 am
I only read Real Detroit Weekly for the pictures……
Dr. DetroitMay 6, 2009 at 8:58 am
Them are some nice pictures.
gorillaMay 6, 2009 at 10:04 am
If they updated the engine so that when you moused over an article you could preview the article title or topic and archiving — I’d say win.
A lot of people say that going ad supported online was the death of “newspapers” — I’d say solely hitching their horse to traditional clickthru display was a big part of the problem. The bar/stripper/slut shot ads here are far more impactful than the metrotimes, freep, detnews banners.
It’s the first time I’ve looked at anything but the cover in months — so that’s something.
Dr. DetroitMay 6, 2009 at 11:07 am
So I hear from a reliable source that Real Detroit’s current site setup is “temporary” and that their archives aren’t lost, so looks like they will be fixing the broken link problem in the near future. Unfortunately the damage to their past Google result may already be done by then depending on how long that takes for them to get them back up.
The Freep and DetNews break their links after a few years and I have always asked myself why? Server space is cheap now so it just doe not make good sense. Metro Times, Model D (ect.) have always kept their links up, which in my opinion is a smart move. Pages and links are the life blood of the internet.
Hey Real Detroit management team, if your reading this I’ll gladly come in and consult you on proper SEO and in the process make you some money.
ScotterMay 6, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I kind of agree with you, Dr. D, but I think that the jury is still out on this one. It depends on whether RDW has struck up a new deal with advertisers–with the ads produced with quality on their site, perhaps they’re able to charge enough to more than make up for the lost web revenue. I don’t know. Maybe by doing the opposite of the Freep – going print only even online — the altweekly is saving on operational costs of running a site (seems like Issuu puts these eversions together for free).
On the other hand, you might be right that RDW loses all pagerank status by losing the links (or hiding them, at least). I’ll be interested to see how this pans out. It’s quite a cavalier move, regardless.
Dr. DetroitMay 6, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Valid points indeed Scotter, valid points – nothing like being a guinea pig.
Dr. DetroitMay 7, 2009 at 10:05 am
It should be noted that readers are not entirely abandoning print, advertisers are – for a cheaper more trackable form of advertising (online). There’s only a finite amount of ad revenue to go around and traditional media is just not a smart bet right now.