

You Can’t Put A Price Tag On A TechCrunch Post - rjvir
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/08/we-are-worth-at-least-3k/

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neya
This is irony at best. Techcrunch talking about journalistic integrity. Do you
know Apple sponsors them to write in favor of them? Even Matt himself admitted
this once on the comments. Techcrunch is one of the shittiest organizations
there exists ever. They include so much bias in their posts, that they are a
shame to the fair Journalism community.

~~~
michael_miller
I'm curious about the example of Apple sponsoring TechCrunch. Do you have a
link to the comment?

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s_henry_paulson
I googled it, and the top results are neya saying the same thing in multiple
other HN comments.

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neya
Thanks :) So Henry, do you still work for Techcrunch?

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s_henry_paulson
Actually I run a data center in Iceland.

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neya
Nice..Consider giving my start-up a discount please :)

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andycroll
Amusing url for the story... <http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/08/we-are-worth-
at-least-3k/>

~~~
fmax30
I was about to mention the same, kind of ironic isn't it. Saying You can't put
a price tag while their Url is saying give us more than 3K and we will think
about it.

~~~
chad_oliver
I think it's reasonable to just interpret it as a joke.

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peteretep
> "Imagine somebody doing this to The Wall Street Journal or The New York
> Times."

You mean like every major PR agency ever?

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gozmike
My startup was on TechCrunch ([http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/11/appifier-
launches-new-servi...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/11/appifier-launches-new-
service-that-turns-wordpress-sites-into-mobile-apps/)) and I'm happy to say
that we didn't spend a dime for news coverage. Never have, and really never
will.

Like pretty much everyone here, I have big issues with paid placement in the
press because it makes reading news that much more boring and really takes
away from all the people working hard to do cool things that actually matter.

If you're even considering paying for press, know this: press will not turn
your company into an instant success story. Only customer development,
understanding your pain points and solving them exceptionally will. PR is not
a sustainable and effective customer acquisition strategy in the majority of
cases (however it does feel really, really good)

Liesl Barrel, a trained actress is one of my friends and advisors. She's a
natural at attracting attention to what she's involved in. She gave me one
solid piece of advice that sums up our entire PR strategy: "Do something
interesting, tell somebody abou it."

If you're doing anything more than that, whether it's kickbacks to a blogger
or paying a PR firm to put you on the newswire, you might need to seriously
rethink why you're even chasing the press.

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c1sc0
Which raises the bigger question: is a Techcrunch post worth $750?

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Peroni
I consider that to be insanely cheap. It would cost you almost double that to
sponsor one high profile tech meet-up in London and a techcrunch piece would
drive infinitely more traffic as well as more credibility.

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aethr
Yes it would drive credibility. It would drive it away.

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qthrul
FTA: $750 = TechCrunch pay-for-pitch targeting vs. $400 = any other blog pay-
for-pitch targeting

A percentage cliff that steep seem like an indication of content saturation
and price competition by amateur entrants vs. a calculation of value with
backing metrics.

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001sky
_We’ve since proved that this is in fact true, and that a couple of our
writers were on the receiving ends of these “pay for play” sorts of pitches._

\-- Unfortunate wording; without an explicit denial.

~~~
h2s
Also note that the article never states that those caught taking money for
writing articles will face any consequences. Sleazy stuff, but who expects any
better from TC?

~~~
Indyan
Err..what I understood from this article is that the PR firms were getting
paid to get their clients into TC. They probably did this by cultivating
relationships with the writers. It doesn't say that any of the writers were
bribed.

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dutchbrit
PRServe posted a response on their website, <http://www.prserve.com>

~~~
Ntrails
That is a terrible terrible front (only?) page

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Dystopian
It is a terrible front-page ( minus marks for also having a apology / hostile
article as the first bit of copy vs. copy of what the company actually does)
--(double minus marks for writing it in copy that's barley legible because of
color).

As for the issue at hand though, I've talked to a lot of marketers and PR
people who specialize in getting up and coming businesses covered - many of
them get the job done - they also charge monthly fees and bonuses for landing
the top ten blogs in specific niches.

These guys are a relatively new firm - the pay-per-results model is definitely
welcome though in an industry that doesn't always show results for the expense
put out (and therefore isn't used by most startups).

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OoTheNigerian
Interesting coincidence especially I read this post a few days ago. Kinda deep
towards the end.

"TechCrunch, Facebook, and journalistic bias:
<http://www.numair.com/2012_09_tc.html> "

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mvkel
I've only met Numair once, but he's repeatedly seen patterns in the world that
don't come to fruition for several years.

He's well ahead of his time; a visionary.

Really cool to see he's writing again!

~~~
Tipzntrix
I'm not so sure; it says he's writing regularly, but that's his last post on
the website.

