One of the things that popped out at me in this announcement is that he's going to be launching this on email, rather than a blog. I know email seems like it's so antiquated and passé, but after listening to Mixergy's interviews with IdealBite and VitalJuice, I'm not so sure. The CPMs for email newsletters seem to be 20-100x what you can get for a blog in the same space, because the customers are so much more engaged. This might not work as well in a tech market, where the audience presumably uses RSS (or maybe not, as Jason already has a sizable list). That said, the reality seems to be that normal people do not use RSS, so you're probably better off starting an email newsletter than a blog.
You are on the money, Ryan. Email is extremely powerful and often overlooked by our community. I'm growing what it is essentially a list with http://anynewbooks.com, and loving every minute of it.
This was my epiphany: there are blogs I visited in the past that I really loved, but for some reason I haven't visited anymore (out of sight, out of mind). On the other hand, I still occasionally receive newsletters I signed up with 10 years ago, from sites I barely visited once.
This might not work as well in a tech market, where the audience presumably uses RSS (or maybe not, as Jason already has a sizable list).
FWIW, I launched Ruby Weekly (a weekly Ruby e-mail newsletter) just over a month ago and it now has 2200 subscribers. It's not quite TechCrunch's audience but one that has heavily used RSS in the past. By comparison, I also own the most subscribed Ruby blog with FeedBurner reporting 25k subscribers but.. I call severe shenanigans on their numbers and the "engagement per capita" from the e-mail newsletter has been very encouraging.
actually I think it's a very bad idea for tech news.
email is slow, any news you cover is old news, that will get scooped by the blogs way before you run it.
A week's time for his editors, means that any news they cover will be severely out of date.
I run http://mydailygeek.com and my run time is only 1 day...and I find myself constantly having to pick different stories throughout the day to run with, since they get bludgeoned to death by the time the emails get sent out.
Now for me it's fine, since my focus isn't startups or the bleeding edge of tech, so the tech I do cover is just interesting stuff that my readers may have missed elsewhere...but for a "Techcrunch competitor", it's suicide.
Any scoop you get will get leaked to Techcrunch before you can run the story.
Analytical content covers different topics. Not product launches, deals and executives moves. It is about opportunities, trends and introductions to the new areas. E.g. should the next wave of startups start from China market? How? What is the potential of sell-to-government market? What is a 5-year outlook on TV business?
Here is an example of content (my own writing) that is an analytical alternative to tech blogs: http://bit.ly/PublicGood
I have to wonder if email is almost faster these days than conventional websites. Of course I am going to TechCrunch once I hear on Twitter that something tech-related happened... But couldn't I have already gotten an email on my smartphone instantly?
Email is old and antiquated, but it is the closest thing bloggers have to push access to all their readers. I know my droid buzzes every time I get an email; it might be time for bloggers to take advantage of this.
I think RSS will hurt him. I've had a hard time building my email newsletter readership (http://dlewis.net/nik) because I run in tech circles, and we all use RSS. However, I've had a much easier time when I get once step removed from RSS culture.
Some links:
http://jasonlbaptiste.com/commentary/email-newsletters-busin...
http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/email-newsletters-are-sti...
http://mixergy.com/jen-boulden-ideal-bite-interview/
http://mixergy.com/amanda-freeman-vital-juice-interview/