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07 Sep 2011 00:06

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Tech: Michael Arrington to AOL: You guys said editorial independence!

  • cause Facing an editorial crisis caused by the announcement of something called the CrunchFund, AOL forced Michael Arrington to step away from his baby, TechCrunch, in an attempt to ease up on an apparent conflict of interest that gave Arianna Huffington fits.
  • reaction Arrington isn’t having that. Earlier today, he reiterated the editorial independence AOL was supposed to give him. He gave them three options: Keep TechCrunch editorially independent, sell the site back to the shareholders, or he walks. Boom.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Sep 2011 13:13

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Tech: Michael Arrington, TechCrunch another example of incestuous tech ethics

  • As we wait to see just how involved Arrington will remain, as a media company that should supposedly hold up some sort of journalistic ethics, AOL is coming out looking quite sleazy.
  • The Atlantic Wire’s Rebecca Greenfield • Offering her take on the debacle revolving around Michael Arrington and TechCrunch. Here’s the issue we see, as outsiders: Michael Arrington has always been as much of a player in Silicon Valley as he’s been a journalist, so there’s always been a small conflict of interest there. But by making the “player” element a bigger part of his job title by creating a venture capital fund, he makes himself a target. But wait. Tech journalism is already incestuous and ethically broken. A few examples: Business Insider’s Henry Blodget was once a financial analyst barred from the securities market for fraud. The WSJ’s Kara Swisher is married to a female Google exec (which she discloses). And Gizmodo parent Gawker Media pays for stories that can draw millions of eyeballs to their sites. The difference is that AOL, which bought TechCrunch a year ago, is a big company that knows better. Or should. And the end result is that it makes AOL look really bad. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Dec 2010 22:59

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Tech: Do Facebook’s new wider ads invade your space too much?

  • Does Facebook disrespect our space by constantly changing its design? And should we complain about it? One thing you may not have noticed about Facebook’s latest design change is that the ads got a lot bigger and more horizontal, at the cost of social media real estate. While we’d argue that it’s not nearly as big a deal as it seems, digital media strategist David Dalka (writing for TechCrunch) would argue that it’s something you should be angry about. “An offline analogy,” Dalka suggests, “might be when a television channel turns down the volume of their shows, while keeping the volume of commercials higher.” We’re not sure if wider column width is the new Billy Mays, but it’s an interesting argument, to say the least.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Nov 2010 10:10

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Biz: Amazon’s “pedophile” crisis: “Free speech” loses out to angry mob

  • bad Some guy decides publishing an e-book called “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure” is a good idea. (It wasn’t, guys.)
  • worse TechCrunch notices the instant classic, creating a huge firestorm and leading to thousands of one-star “reviews” on the book’s Amazon page.
  • worser Amazon initially keeps the book online for “free speech” reasons, before finally taking it down after it reached the Top 100 in book sales. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Sep 2010 20:38

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Tech: TechCrunch sells to AOL: Now they can focus on writing

  • They run the largest blogging network in the world and if we sold to them we’d never have to worry about tech issues again. We could focus our engineering resources on higher end things and I, for one, could spend more of my day writing and a lot less time dealing with other stuff.
  • Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington • Explaining why he agreed to let AOL buy his company. Simply put – he thinks AOL’s content vision is really compatible with what the company already does. But the really interesting part? TechCrunch will be ensured editorial freedom from AOL. Arrington says that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong thought “was important that we feel free to criticize AOL when we think they deserve it. And the agreement we signed with AOL fully reflects this.” That’s a big deal. Who knows how much TechCrunch sold for? Who cares? Having such a strong backbone of support makes the whole thing worth it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Sep 2010 23:52

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Tech: Michael Arrington doesn’t need on-the-record sources, thank you

  • This is a difficult post to write, because I call nearly every person in that room a friend. But these actions are so completely inappropriate it has to be called out.
  • Michael “something happened somewhere” Arrington • Describing a situation which potentially sounds very damaging to a number of angel investors in Silicon Valley. The way Arrington describes it, and he was careful not to name names, was that a group of investors were discussing ways to wield their collective influence to prevent venture capitalists from swooping in, or Y Combinator from getting too much power in the startup sphere. If true, these acts are illegal. Arrington reportedly heard about the discussion, showed up, and watched the room go quiet on him. Caught? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Sep 2010 10:55

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Tech: Rumor mill: Facebook’s building a phone, we scoff and stuff

  • rumor Facebook is reportedly working on their own phone, according to TechCrunch. The guy behind the iPhone app is one of the reported principals on the project.
  • skepticism Phones are a lot different from friends. Is Facebook really suited for this? And with all the privacy problems they’ve had, would anyone trust them? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Sep 2010 09:43

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Tech: TechCrunch relives the early Twttr days with an old-school logo

  • There has to be a good story behind this decision. TechCrunch redid its logo today, but they redid it to look exactly like Twitter’s original logo, launched way back in 2006. Arrington posted an article noting how he was sort of wrong about how Twitter’s success would play out, and it’s a bit hilarious to see how off-base some of the commenters were. Blast from the past, indeed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

30 Aug 2010 09:29

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Tech: Remember the CrunchPad/Joojoo? Some lawsuit stuff just happened

  • Remember the CrunchPad? That thing that became the JooJoo without the branding of TechCrunch’s main dude? Of course you do. Anyway, some court stuff recently happened in the case, tossing away most of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s claims, but keeping a big, important one: The companies were business partners and had responsibilities to one another. Fusion Garage, the guys behind the JooJoo, are idiots that totally cost themselves good press and overcharged for a device now forgotten in the iPad’s wake, but that’s besides the point. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Aug 2010 12:09

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Offbeat: What is this young lady holding up on a whiteboard?

We guarantee you that 1) it’s funny, 2) she’s awesome and 3) she’s not a Farmville fan. Which makes our hearts swoon. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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