In May 2016, Gary Illyes from Google said he is angry with sites that don't link out - he called it stupid. But John Mueller later explained that there is no penalty for not linking out to other sites.
He had to say that again in a Google Webmaster Help thread the other day. He said:
If a site doesn't want to link to anyone else, that's up to them. There's no penalty or demotion for doing that.
He said it is "solely up to the site what they want to publish & how they want to link." "If their site serves their audience well, that's fine. If you think you can run a site that serves the audience even better, then go for it & make that site yourself!," John added.
For folks like me - I hate seeing when a larger publisher snatches your story or even quotes you and doesn't drop a link. But over time, it bothers me a lot less. Sometimes you get lucky and they link out. The truth is, they would link out more if a fear of linking out due to Google penalty.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
