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OMG, you won't believe what The Lebanon Voice said!

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OK, everybody, first let's take a nice deep cleansing breath.

OK, one more.

It may be the dog days of summer, but it sure doesn't feel that way at The Lebanon Voice.

Usually this month we're looking around for a silly story to get us through August. Not this year.

There's what we call in the biz hard news up the yin yang, with so little time for the folderol.

But gosh darn it, we need folderol, too.

So let's begin with online news headlines, like on AOL or Yahoo.

We've got to vent over this

They're disgusting. All they want you to do is click to their plethora of popup ads, including annoying video ads that sometimes take 20 seconds to download before you can read the story you're interested in. By then you've forgotten what it is you wanted to read.

So the headlines are no more than contrivances to get you to click.

Here's an example. If Donald Trump yelled out the F-bomb during a speech, my headline would be "Trump hurls expletive-laced tirade at rally." But here's what the onliners write in their insatiable quest for clicks. "OMG You won't believe what the Donald said."

That's not a headline, it's a tease. Shame on you. And of course you will never see this headline in The Lebanon Voice: "Heidi Klum posts topless photos while swimming." (Btw, Sorry AOL, apologize for plagiarizing this morning's headline.)

You see a headline in a traditional paper or a reputable online paper (like The Lebanon Voice) is trying to tell you the gist of the story, unlike the onliners who just want your click and get their ad impressions or video runs for which they're paid.

In traditional papers they didn't have to have you turn the page to get paid for the ad. But in the search engine home pages, those precepts are flung out the door. Their mantra is "Make it sexy, make them click."

We'll never do that type of headline at The Voice. Well, maybe once to make a point.

By the way, The Lebanon Voice is looking forward to meeting readers at its booth at Saturday's Lebanon Festival. Drop by for a chat and a chance to win a Lebanon Voice coffee mug.

As a present to Lebanon, Rochester and Milton we've just opened up much of our website to the public. Everything is now free with the exception of Top Stories, the three town sections and Opinion.

That means See N Go, Lifestyle, Business, and all the rest of the paper is free.

Lastly the footer of a Sanford police officer's email is priceless. It's a quote from a Sanford newspaper from the 19th century. It speaks for itself. Here it is, and with this done, we shall take our leave.

"If in the stilly watches of the night you should hear the sound of footsteps on our streets, be not alarmed, 'tis but the mailed tread of the watch men who guard our Village lest the Lebanon Acton burglars should confiscate our household goods." - Springvale Advocate October 10, 1884

Postscript: Heidi Klum is looking fantastic!

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