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Comment by shiburizu | Hacker News Reader

Saw someone else comment on a different TechCrunch article here on HN about how these articles about Apple read like press releases. I really feel that now.

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As a PM, this article is what I would write as sample press coverage I'd like for a product release.

Interesting to see that the author is a former PR member of http://my.workflow.is/ + has one recent article for TechCrunch.

Oh hey looks they were purchased by Apple: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/22/apple-has-acquired-workflo...

Quick Edit: I'm not saying that this isn't good technology, rather I'm more concerned that TechCrunch is taking contributors who have ties to products being reported on and may have interests that are not being communicated to readers.

Yeah, this is native advertising and it's Everywhere.

"Native advertising" sounds very much like the MBA-term for what I would call "deception".

(I'm not accusing you of anything, just making commentary)

TechCrunch does this all the time, most of the "news" blogs do – I worked at a company that employed a PR firm that basically put our product release collateral directly onto a bunch of those blogs – it made me very uncomfortable.

Workflow is the technology which is becoming the Siri Shortcuts editor.

Shortcuts is basically Workflow with private API access.

The suite is back! http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

It should be noted that this is a Contributor article (common on weekends), not an article from the main TechCrunch staff.

It should also be noted that post-acquisition Workflow (where the author worked at and is noted in the author blurb) was the precursor team to Shortcuts.

Company issues press release on new product. News companies relay information to readers. Readers complain the info just looks like a press release.

But as a reader, I do want to know this stuff.

You can get it from the source. No deceptive marketing tactics required.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/

It's fine if they make clear it's just a press release, but this is a press release masquerading as journalism.

To be honest, I don’t feel like these sites even know what to ask. This may be the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect in action.

Where else did you think Tech content comes from?

Much of it is independent enthusiasts dissecting public information.

Specifically because this is an announcement that is a copy of functionality shown for Android already.

It's Apple catching up.. which if this was a journalistic article would be mentioned.

"Apple announces same feature Google announced 6 months ago"

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