Re:How To Get an Article on TechCrunch, A Case Study
by _delirium on Monday August 02, 2010 @05:45AM
(#1567254)
Even more problematically, it seems to run a real risk that they're going to publish hype/fluff (well, more than currently). I mean, if you look at that Michael Arrington email that was quoted, he says that he liked the style of the pitch, and liked the problem they were addressing, but didn't care if they solved it or not--- kind of fast-forwarded through the video and wasn't really paying attention. Makes it pretty easy to hype a non-existent solution, so long as at least your problem space and your pitch are interesting.
Re:How To Get an Article on TechCrunch, A Case Study
by edanm on Monday August 02, 2010 @08:50AM
(#1567488)
The email was sent to a colleague, who was told to pursue it (and who published the article). Maybe if it was all fluff, then it wouldn't have gotten published.
Re:How To Get an Article on TechCrunch, A Case Study
by webwright on Monday August 02, 2010 @11:40AM
(#1567913)
That's not the point here. The case study was about a company that wasn't remotely news and had no shot at coverage based on who they were or what they were building.
PR is about taking something boring and making it interesting. Like an online shoe company (Zappos). Or a suite of project management tools (37 Signals). Or a bug tracking tool (FogBugz).
To your point though, if you talk to Arrington, you'll learn two things-- 1) The guy virtually never sleeps or relaxes and 2) He's always digging. TechCrunch breaks news a lot. I think they are a 15+ person company now-- plenty of room to cover inbound and outbound leads.
Re:How To Get an Article on TechCrunch, A Case Study
by duck on Monday August 02, 2010 @08:20AM
(#1567436)
I predict that sooner or later there will be party that goes out of their way to look for the news that will eclipse TC.
HN could almost be that (it already is for me since I stopped reading TC) if we would stop linking to TC and instead go out and find these stories ourselves. I know that isn't as easy as it sounds, but I think we are close.
Re:How To Get an Article on TechCrunch, A Case Study
by shantanubala on Monday August 02, 2010 @11:32AM
(#1567890)
Well, in many ways the "rate my startup" posts are a smaller, more down-to-earth version of TechCrunch that actually allows you to interact with the founders of the startup and really get to know the product and the person(s) behind it. You also often get access to betas just by being part of HN.
Sure, PR is part and parcel of running a tech company. But active journalism is the staple of a good media outlet and to rely on being pitched almost guarantees that you're going to miss out on a lot of important stuff.