3 ms·

Out of curiosity I just went to the Indy's website (now its only hope of survival). Unfortunately, my first thought was "damn, what the hell did I just click on

by struct 11y ago

Out of curiosity I just went to the Indy's website (now its only hope of survival). Unfortunately, my first thought was "damn, what the hell did I just click on?" If I want Kanye West, speculation on who'll be the next James Bond, and Duncan Bannatyne doing... something, that's what the Daily Mail's for. I really can't see how it has a chance.

leereeves 11y ago
http://independent.co.uk/ http://independent.co.uk/ There is more than fluff there. For example: "Suspected Russian air strikes destroy MSF children's hospital - despite so-called Syria 'ceasefire" and "Anger as boycott of Israeli goods to become a criminal offense" and a lot more.
- notahacker 11y ago
  It's still purposely designed to (i) look like a tabloid (ii) make the horrible Taboola "promoted content" spam look indistinguishable from the actual journalism and (iii) promote fluff pieces from the blog of its sister tabloid more prominently than substantial content from the actual broadsheet. It's difficult to conclude the people behind their online strategy had any love for the broadsheet newspaper or any desire to position it as editorially weighty.
  - joshvm 11y ago
    It really does look a lot like Taboola. Here's their click-bait trash (I have no other words for it, it's not even good advertising): https://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clips/attachments/43217/original/Screen_Shot_2015-02-04_at_8.10.43_AM.png?1423055474 https://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clips/attachments/43217/or... And now compare to the Indy homepage... for a paper which has historically been pro civil liberties and not afraid of going against journalistic norms, this is a real pity.
    - notahacker 11y ago
      If you read an article page with adblocker off, the similarities are even more mindboggling. The only way you can tell the difference is that the Taboola links are slightly bigger and more prominently positioned than the links to the actual articles...
- teekert 11y ago
  So it's a also a propaganda channel ;)

by struct 11y ago

leereeves 11y ago

http://independent.co.uk/ http://independent.co.uk/ There is more than fluff there. For example: "Suspected Russian air strikes destroy MSF children's hospital - despite so-called Syria 'ceasefire" and "Anger as boycott of Israeli goods to become a criminal offense" and a lot more.

notahacker 11y ago
It's still purposely designed to (i) look like a tabloid (ii) make the horrible Taboola "promoted content" spam look indistinguishable from the actual journalism and (iii) promote fluff pieces from the blog of its sister tabloid more prominently than substantial content from the actual broadsheet. It's difficult to conclude the people behind their online strategy had any love for the broadsheet newspaper or any desire to position it as editorially weighty.
- joshvm 11y ago
  It really does look a lot like Taboola. Here's their click-bait trash (I have no other words for it, it's not even good advertising): https://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clips/attachments/43217/original/Screen_Shot_2015-02-04_at_8.10.43_AM.png?1423055474 https://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clips/attachments/43217/or... And now compare to the Indy homepage... for a paper which has historically been pro civil liberties and not afraid of going against journalistic norms, this is a real pity.
  - notahacker 11y ago
    If you read an article page with adblocker off, the similarities are even more mindboggling. The only way you can tell the difference is that the Taboola links are slightly bigger and more prominently positioned than the links to the actual articles...
teekert 11y ago
So it's a also a propaganda channel ;)