TechCrunch wants to know how TechCrunch+ subscribers like the product, so it has surveyed them. Here are the six screens from the survey, fielded last month. It’s good to see TC so solicitous.
TechCrunch this week retired its Extra Crunch brand, ending what proved to be an interesting 31-month experiment. TC’s paid edit product is now called TechCrunch+, only slightly different in composition from its predecessor.
TechCrunch Extra Crunch is about to relaunch EC-1, a series of in-depth, multi-part profiles of emerging, private tech companies. TC EC debuted EC-1 profiles in 2019, publishing five in all before Covid-19 began wreaking its havoc. TechCrunch has decided to try it again in 2021.
Alex Wilhelm is back at TechCrunch. Four years away have changed him. “I’m in different physical shape these days,” he says from his WFH studio in Rhode Island. “I’m a lot thinner. I don’t drink anymore. I’m a less aggressive, kinder person than I was. And I know a lot more.”
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FRIDGE NOTES
So 1/5 of The Verge and 1/5 of Vox, and the other titles, now belong to the publisher of Rolling Stone and Women’s Wear Daily. Interesting deal and a nice scoop from the NYT.
CNET insiders are leaking, helping Mia Sato deliver this powerful story, which alleges that CNET buckles to advertisers, and also, that editors knew about the unreliable AI-written copy, but owner Red Ventures made them use it anyway.
The latest from Futurism: ‘Leaked Messages Show How CNET’s Parent Company Really Sees AI-Generated Content…
They’re happy to spoonfeed you unlabeled AI garbage — but they’re terrified Google will take notice.’
Great scoop from the WSJ’s Alexandra Bruell (sub required).
Tweeted by Axios health tech reporter Erin Brodwin: “If you’re pitching me on a company’s credentials, no need to tell me how great the founding team is, where they’ve worked, etc. — I’ll find out. Tell me how they solve a problem, how they’re diff from rivals (and there are *always* rivals), how they track outcomes and get paid.”
AI won’t replace accountants, says ChatGPT, as published in Accounting Today.
Fortune this week announced Fortune’s Founders Forum, an extension of Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech franchise. Former Fortune reporter Polina Marinova Pompliano will co-moderate the first Founders Forum event in July, along with Michal Lev-Ram. Fortune Founders Forum will be co-located with Brainstorm Tech. Here is the press release.
