FC's New Editor
Bob Safian came from Time Inc., with time at Money, Time and Fortune. David: "He's a really sharp magazine maker in a way that the magazine has probably never had at Fast Company.
Today it's all about the blog.
Webware, Crave, & Alpha
Webware.com is focused on web apps (or as the enterprise calls it, software-as-a-service) for SMB & consumers and is Job #1 for Rafe these days. Believing that Web 2.0 and SaaS were too much jargon for the average user, the term "Webware" was born and poses the question: "What can I do with this net connection I have?" Rafe and a researcher make up the full-time staff with the rest coming in as contributions from across CNET's editorial teams.
Freelancer:
Bruce appreciates a pitch that has "already thought through the story for Forbes. When the email comes it has character, challenge, obstacles overcome, the drama and the result." If you can add to that "disruption -- clear evidence of how this little company is changing the balance of power against a mighty Cisco or Microsoft or Exxon…our stock and trade is little guy picking on big guy."
"Not a 20-minute conversation with founders, but a commitment." Ideally, he "wanted to get them out of the office." What he got was two full days "just talking about Zillow and real estate entrepreneurs etc.," with a trip to a Seahawks game, family, dinner and drinks included. The corporate PR director "was great … accessible and bright … a sounding board…" and not just for Zillow, but for the real estate market in general.
Larry likes doing his own reporting and says he's pretty pitchable especially for bigger trends, i.e. virtualization, data center cooling, start-ups. Just remember, ZDNet is "an enterprise site."
Ashlee Vance - Editor, U.S. Edition, The Register
Audience
Based in UK, The Register enjoys 4.4 million uniques a month, with 1.4 million impressions daily - half of those are from U.S. It started out as a "newsletter for chip heads" with lots of microprocessor coverage that "catered to engineers," Ashlee says. From there it began to draw more industry watchers and CEOs. He says they also get "plenty of emails from execs," adding that recent studies have shown a healthy IT buyer crowd.
Where tech and media intersect…
...is "what I consider my sweet spot," she says. For years Stephanie has "written a lot about companies as corporate institutions" but now finds it "interesting how traditional telecommunications companies have become distribution platforms for media and content," previously the domain of cable and satellite operators, "and now cable and satellite are moving into where telecom used to dominate."
The Wall Street Journal--New York Times rivalry has spilled into the consumer tech blogosphere, but their real enemy is not one another. It's specialists such as Engadget and Gizmodo, who in covering CES and Macworld showed more imagination, posted more items and inspired more reader feedback than the hallowed New York dailies.
The hook
Uniques per month - www.wsj.com 700,000 paid subs to WSJ.com. Readership of the US print edition: 2.1 million.
