Billboard has quite a few problems, in my opinion. A shrinking base of potential subscribers and a relatively weak online presence are two of the main issues. (Billboard.com has good traffic, but Billboard.biz lags behind Stereogum, Variety and Alley Insider. Check at Alexa.com.) But it has a solid brand, and thank goodness for its charts and conferences.

But there's one annoying symptom of the Billboard's inability to offer a pleasurable Web experience: Lack of hyperlinks at Billboard.biz. In this article about Tommy TV, the just-launched online video joint venture between Sony BMG and Tommy Hilfiger, there is no link to the actual site. Imagine that...a web article about a website doesn't contain a single link to the article's topic. Geesh. Even the New York Times regularly links to outside web sites.

Bottom line: Putting print articles on a web page is so 1998.

Usually Google can help out. In this case, I clicked on the first result in a Google News search and found the link at a Vogue UK post.

So for those of you wanting that link to Tommy TV, here it is. Enjoy. See, that wasn't very hard, was it?

If Billboard.biz was more like a blog -- dynamic, quick, easy, open to the outside world -- and less its own silo, it would be way, way more successful. I have no doubt. Since I'm a regular visitor and generally enjoy and appreciate the site's content, I hope Billboard.biz can change with the times.

[music jobs] Director of Content at Dada Entertainment; New York, NY.