Comment by hornokplease | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hornokplease | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

This does seem a bit afield for HN, but since it is being discussed here are a few relevant links:

http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-qa-arrington-says-t...

Michael Arrington gave an interview to the Business Insider today where he discusses this issue, and also raises the (legitimate) point that conflicts of interest in journalism go beyond monetary investment and touch on personal relationships between journalists and the subjects they choose to write about.

http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2011/04/like...

Veteran tech journalist Tom Foremski spells out the more traditional objection to journalists investing in the industry they cover:

"It's about protecting a trusted relationship between reader and reporter, and equally important, reporter and source."

[EDIT for clarity and grammar]

Mike's absolutely right. Unless you're attached to an old-school news organization, there's no real journalistic standards in tech, and everyone writes favorably about their buddies. Since venture capitalists all read the industry blogs, this favorable coverage can be very, very useful at key points in your startup's life. Personal relationships are also great for getting a more moderate viewpoint out there when you've cocked up and the industry blogs are doing the usual rush to pile-on. (Internally, I referred to this as a 'combo breaker'.)

I was terrible at this game when I first became aware of it - probably because I'm a pretty private guy with only a few close friends. But after seeing others do it well, I'm convinced that it's important. Should I ever run a VC-backed startup again, I will employ a head of marketing who knows how to make nice and buy drinks.

"Unless you're attached to an old-school news organization"

I would say that even there, prejudice shows. I sometimes think it is worse because they are try to say they are something they are not.

" ... there's no real journalistic standards in tech, "

While I don't disagree, I can be sad at this reality. Journalism fails when it doesn't have standards.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com