

Whither TechCrunch - DigitalBoB12
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/whither-techcrunch.html

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gyardley
The 'at' shouldn't be in the title here. The original 'Whither TechCrunch?' is
correct - it means 'to where is TechCrunch going?'

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Yhippa
If TechCrunch replaced all their writers with people who wrote in a less
sensational style I might actually read it.

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shrikant
I agree so violently I might get ill.

It continuously surprises/annoys me that TechCrunch is one of the most
submitted domains here on HN. Nearly every article has a breathless, faux-
drama tone about it that's better suited for PerezHilton than a tech blog. And
yet their readership appears to be way beyond that of, say, a Mashable or a
ReadWriteWeb.

I guess it just proves that human nature persists regardless of one's
technical inclinations. 'Valley' gossip, evidently, always has takers.

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jonnathanson
TechCrunch has always straddled a line between journal of the tech industry
and gossip rag about people and companies _in_ the tech industry. In recent
years it's steered increasingly toward the latter direction -- essentially
becoming Gawker: Valley Edition. No doubt this is because gossipy stories got
more pageviews and more comments, and so TechCrunch focused its content
accordingly.

It's unfortunate that such a direction gets more attention and more views. But
such is life. If you're giving away the content and charging advertisers, then
to some degree you're a slave to the almighty pageview metrics. This doesn't
_have_ to mean serving up trash to the lowest common denominator, but that's
the easiest and most immediately profitable strategy. (Other strategies might
include going upscale / higher quality / niche, and then charging advertisers
a premium based on the demographic breakdown of the readership).

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Goladus
I think the point was that while it's understandable TechCrunch might do that,
it's disappointing (and sometimes a bit frustrating) that those articles are
submitted and upvoted on Hacker News anyway.

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jonnathanson
Agreed that it is disappointing and frustrating. No question. Part of me
wonders, however, whether it's possible to be a mainstream tech blog and a
non-gossipy tech blog at the same time.

Mainstream, mass-audience blogs always seem to take the LCD route at some
point in their life cycles. I don't know whether they feel forced into it by
advertisers, or whether they consciously do it in an attempt to optimize
pageviews. Either way, the outcome is usually good for short term business,
but bad for long-term readership.

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franze
well, seems like self-censorship a la
<http://enzenhofer.posterous.com/69067051> will be the future of TC

