

Ask HN: How would you improve TechCrunch? - transatlantic

Or ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Alley Insider, etc.?<p>I'd like to see more about new and early-stage startups and less about every real or imagined bit of news relating to Facebook, Google or Apple. Insight about how Startup X solved some important problem with a team of four holds a lot more interest for me than the latest Twitter rumor.<p>I don't ever expect to see this out of the established news outlets, since startups don't deliver nearly the page views of rumors and iPhones and lawsuits. But it has me wondering whether there's enough demand for a competitor offering high-quality reporting exclusively in this niche from the start, and the other ways in which they could improve on what's already out there. And how they'd make money doing it.
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nudge
I would read that. It would be really interesting to see a news source that
focused on startups that are still, you know, starting up. Maybe you could
have a rule where you only report on companies until they either fold or start
bringing in serious money.

The problem would be finding enough to write about. I think a lot of the rumor
articles aren't there only because the authors like rumors - it's because the
authors have explicit or implicit blogging quotas.

But maybe there are enough out there. If you focused only on the small
companies, and put the word out, they'd probably come to you to announce their
announcements, so you wouldn't be short of material.

Come up with clear criteria for what you'll cover - it'll be easier to
position yourself and for people to see why they should keep coming back.

The money would probably not be huge, but you could make some from
advertising. I'm sure some of the companies you write about would be willing
to buy some ads or sponsored 'spotlight' posts. Post several times a day, with
one spotlight a week for, I don't know, $X00. There's some not-insubstantial
money right there.

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minalecs
I agree.. I would like to focus more on tech and startups vs the
rumors/controversy.. even hackernews is becoming more like
techcrunch/rww/mashables and less like startup news.

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DistortedRhymes
Techcrunch used to be my favourite site a few years back because (from what I
can remember) it was very much about start-ups. Now its got all sorts of junk
about general tech stuff, products, bla bla bla. If I had my way get rid of
all these new blog posters at TechCrunch and just have Arrington and one or
two others. They just seem to be writing opinion and waffle pieces these days.
I wish I could just get Arringtons posts, rather that the rest.

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martingordon
I think this sums it up: <http://twitter.com/shusta/statuses/18634722063>

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fookyong
I don't think that's Techcrunch's mission now.

However, they could start a sister site (like CrunchGear) and dedicate it to
that. I wonder why they haven't... the market is probably a bit too niche. It
would require the same amount of manpower as something like CrunchGear, but
have a smaller readership.

Maybe an opportunity for a subscription-based Techcrunch sister site?

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AmberShah
I think Mixergy does this but I think there's room for more.

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lakeeffect
More Lacy, Sarah.

