TechCrunch gets on on the hilarious Woot.com AP baiting mess

Meanwhile, AP staffers across the Gulf region and in Washington continue to provide comprehensive coverage of the oil spill.
AP Director of Media Relations Paul Colford • Using the oil spill as a scapegoat for the whole faux-fight with Woot.com and TechCrunch. TechCrunch, thank God, has a little bit of fun with the whole thing, posting a whole AP story on their site just to be stupid and childish. To which, we say, why the heck not! It’s AP who needs to change, not TechCrunch. One of the best TechCrunch posts in months. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

But when we found your little newsy thing you do, we couldn’t help but notice something important. And that something is this: you printed our web content in your article! The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn’t that the very thing you’ve previously told nu-media bloggers they’re not supposed to do?
A message from Woot.com • Regarding the Associated Press using quotes from their blog post on their sale to Amazon. Considering the AP has a stupid, stupid rule regarding the quoting of content by outside sources, we’ve mostly avoided their content except when absolutely necessary. Woot.com says that they’ll allow the AP to use their quotes, but it’ll cost them $17.50. Unless, they’re willing to make this deal with the site: “Instead of cutting us a check for the web content you liberated from our site, all you’ll need to do is show us your email receipt from today’s two pack of Sennheiser MX400 In-Ear Headphones, and we’ll call it even.” Well played, sirs. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Well, that’s the funniest thing we’ve seen all day. Woot.com is one of the coolest concepts for shopping online anywhere, and they’re totally irreverent to boot. And now that Amazon has acquired them, that’s gonna change, right? Actually, no. See, Amazon acquired a similarly irreverent site called Zappos.com about a year ago, and they left the corporate culture alone. The company’s CEO, Matt Rutledge, puts it this way: “We plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard.” source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jul 2010 15:43