There are some things that, with age, have no business on a web site, such as price lists for products no longer carried, bios of past executives who have since been fired for embezzling, and commercial endorsements by O.J. Simpson. But perfectly good content gets euthanized all the time. In the process of regularly validating and updating more than 2,000 bookmarks on the companion web site to our book, we've found links to hundreds of useful web pages that have been removed without a trace. By removing this content, MediaMap cut itself off from the qualified leads delivered by inbound links and the additional search engine referral traffic. Place it in an archive.
Content can be an expensive business.
One way is to syndicate it. Another way is to extend its lifetime by keeping it accessible. Newspaper sites have long understood the value of archived content, frequently charging users' fees to access it. Of course, leaving old content on your front door isn't the answer either. You should at least acknowledge your site's aging content by placing it in an appropriate section.