Denis Dutton always resisted moves that would let AL Daily readers avoid the front page. So Arts & Letters was very slow to have an RSS feed; when it was implemented, it didn't include the Nota Bene line. The Twitter account gave headlines, but only linked back to the front page.
Since 4 January, @ALDaily has been linking straight to cited content.
In the short run, this is likely to increase overall ALD readership - bringing ALD to the infovores who can't keep up with too many separate page aggregators. In the long run ... it's hard to tell. I'd always prodded Denis to do things that made my life easier - like giving me a full-powered Twitter feed. He'd grumble at me that making me go to the front page was the point. I still need to go to the front page for the NBs; I'm sure The Chronicle is watching its stats carefully.
One thing I would recommend: that ALDaily run its own customized URL shortener. They're using a mix of tiny.cc, bit.ly, and the different shorteners that outfits like Slate and LA Times run for their own content. Evan should partner up with bit.ly or tiny.cc to run ALD.ly. The shortened link is then an ad for ALD. If the shortener is only available for articles linked-to by ALD, it's a mark of distinction for the linked piece.
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