Journal of Commerce to Freight Waves: Stop linking to us

The executive editor of the Journal of Commerce has told Freight Waves, a website that tracks the freight industry, to stop linking to its content in its stories.

John Paul Hampstead of Freight Waves writes, “One of our staff writers covered a story we’ve written about for months—the trucker strike that crippled Brazil and its aftermath—and had cited a quote that appeared in a JOC article, linking back to the original source. We’ve always respected the JOC as an institution (founded in New York in 1827) and thought JOC’s writers were some of the best in the industry.

“The Journal of Commerce clearly does not feel the same way about FreightWaves. In fact, JOC’s executive editor told us that their new intellectual property policy prohibits FreightWaves from ever quoting or linking to JOC’s articles again.

“We were taken aback: wait a minute, a media website wants to prohibit another website from linking to their content? Does the Journal of Commerce know about backlinks, search engine optimization, or how websites generate traffic? At FreightWaves, we love it when websites like Timber Processing, naked capitalism, Rystad Energy and Bitcoin Magazine link to us because it helps our content reach varied, niche audiences, engage with new subject matter experts, and enhance our site’s visibility.”

Read more here.