Virtual TechCrunch Disrupt 2020 launched yesterday, the flagship event from Silicon Valley tech edit’s biggest brand. Overall, it went well — so much so that it’s hard to imagine F2F events ever again being produced as they were before the pandemic.
TechCrunch has announced yet another event series — TechCrunch Early Stage — designed to help seed and Series A startups grow quickly. The first event will take place Apr. 28 at the Hilton Union Square San Francisco. Events in Paris and New York will be announced later this year.
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.”
We get a lot of questions about TechCrunch Extra Crunch. Who reads it? How is it doing? Should we pitch it? So we checked in with TC EC editor Danny Crichton, who was happy to guide tech PR in how things were going, and how best to serve his new franchise.
TechCrunch Extra Crunch this week posted a pair of articles containing admonishment and advice for tech PR pros. The top portion of the posts does appear for free in regular TechCrunch. The full text is available only to TC EC subscribers. We hereby excerpt (in fair-use fashion) what our readers most need to know.
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.)
Does TechCrunch Extra Crunch present extra pitch opportunity? The one-word answer is yes. But in the vast majority of instances, tech PR pros will pitch the publication just as they have since its founding in 2005.
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.
TechCrunch still covers funding rounds the old-fashioned way — with lots of full-fledged articles each day, each with their own style. No digests like Fortune’s and CNBC’s. Nothing half-hearted. Coverage ranges from seed round through Series E and F.
The new TechCrunch web platform, launched in beta this week, will keep you reading more of what you’ve chosen. And it stands to change how you think of stories and pages. TC’s edit direction remains the same — companies, technologies, founders and investors. It’s still about breaking news and smart analysis delivered wryly.
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… and it has no problem disclosing how. Reporters still run the joint, but they are getting AI assistance.
The Atlantic’s Karen Hao, in conjunction with the Pulitzer Center, is designing a course in AI for journalists. Classes begin next month. Details here. Might be something to alert your friendlies about. Karen hopes to help train 1,000 journalists in AI over the next two years.
Joshua Topolsky‘s edit project for Robinhood is optimized for mobile but you can peruse it here. The design seems crazy. Context from Axios’s Sara Fischer here.
‘The Prompt” is not out yet, but you can sign up for it here.
That’s the strategy as expressed to NYT’s Katie Robertson by Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. First up: Eleanor Hawkins, Sara Fischer and Dan Primack.
Forbes’s reputation is taking a hit because of the ad scandal unearthed this month by the WSJ. Some advertisers have stopped spending with Forbes, at least temporarily. Here’s the latest from Digiday [subscription required].
