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Multiple Page News Articles

Why do online newspapers and other publications insist on breaking up their articles into multiple pages? Is it some relic of the old dial-up days? A way to generate more ad revenue (via more impressions)?

Either way, it is very annoying from a reader’s perspective. At the very least, they should offer the ability to view the entire article (though it is often available that way by using the “print” button).

Check out how this Boston Herald article breaks up the two “pages” — what a waste!

(BTW, if you’re interested in the hilarious incident described in the article, video is here.)

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3 Responses to “Multiple Page News Articles”

  1. Scott Allen Says:

    Yes, I hate this. I don’t think it has anything to do with dial-up, because ESPN.com started doing it probably only a couple years ago now. It has to be an ad impression thing, doesn’t it?

  2. Administrator Says:

    Yeah, probably ads. It is still a shame that they don’t offer a way for users to opt out of it, since most users probably would use the default anyway. I suppose, however, that if that keeps the content free is it probably worth a small annoyance.

  3. Scott Allen Says:

    I’m not sure if this is still true or not. (I could check but I’m too lazy.) ESPN.com used to, by default, go to page one of the story, where there was a link for “full article.” Problem was, usually the story only had two pages, so it wasn’t really worth it. If only they had a cookie or something to keep my setting…

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