Thu, 2019-02-14 09:14
Sam
TechCrunch Extra Crunch: Overview
TechCrunch this week introduced TechCrunch Extra Crunch, a premium subscription tier that brings extra content and services to the publication’s most passionate readers. Tech PR gets new opportunity to pitch startups without needing a news hook. (See related analysis.)
Want to upgrade to a subscription that includes SWMS news, research and consulting? Send e-mail to Christy for details.
The Block "is not an enthusiast site [for crypto]," says new editor-in-chief John Biggs. "We're not rah rah rah all day long like other sites." The 12-year veteran of TechCrunch is now a full-timer at The Block, a thoughtful crypto publication that's coming up on its first birthday.
Is “social good” a good topic to pitch? Mashable does have its “social good” section. Fast Company’s Ben Paynter and VentureBeat’s Kyle Wiggers do write frequently on the topic. This week we added six additional reporters to our SWMS social good cheat sheet, as well as a twice-weekly newsletter from Vox.
More than 1,000 media people lost their jobs yesterday. At BuzzFeed the toll will range between 225 and 250. At Verizon Media Group — home to Yahoo, AOL and TechCrunch — it was more like 850. What’s happening and what does it mean for PR?
Does Business Insider hurt itself reserving select articles only for BI Prime subscribers? Probably not. Of all the types of articles BI publishes, only three tend to be gated, SWMS research shows. Unfortunately, those types include most stories PR folks would pitch.
Dow Jones this week introduced WSJ Pro Artificial Intelligence (WSJ Pro AI), the sixth in a series of WSJ Professional Editions designed for business executives and technologists immersed in a particular field. Unlike the other WSJ Pro verticals -- focused on cybersecurity, central banking, venture capital, private equity, and bankruptcy -- the AI vertical is free.
Add Substack to the list of platforms frustrating to PR -- Product Hunt, Stack Overflow, Reddit, Quora -- that command attention but aren't pitchable like publications. Founded in 2017, Substack is a publishing platform for indie newsletter authors. It's cool and we'll get into why, but Substack's web site is more or less a metaphorical black box.
Here's a selection of 2019-related links and notions you may find predictive of things to come. Explored are three cool tools that automate the creation of rough drafts, the rise of graphics at the WSJ, and the specter of global financial chaos that could transform the world of business and tech media.
A fixture in our Q4 subscriber meetings was the discussion of SEO and evergreen content. Here's how the set-up went. "Think about how much has been written about digital transformation... the many thousands of articles. Now let's go to Google, type in 'digital transformation' and let's see what ranks highest."
Before 2018 concludes, we wanted to share concepts we presented during our recent subscriber visits. We typically arrived in the conference room with 10-15 web pages tabbed up on the laptop — and we varied them from day to day. Rarely omitted: the one on "business, society and technology."
A sharp-eyed subscriber alerted us this week to a cool, little-known Business Insider feature called “My First Day as CEO.” After a bit of sleuthing we identified the editor who oversees the franchise, and she offered us good background and pitching advice.
