Six Months In, And 600 Posts Later . . . The Worlds Of Blogging and Journalism Collide (In My Brain)
Erick Schonfeld
86 comments »
Blink, and six months go by. Ever since I made the move from Time Inc. to TechCrunch, my life has become a whirlwind of nonstop blog posting, little sleep, and a growing addiction to news feeds, Techmeme, and my Blackberry. Last week, I wrote my 600th post (this one is No. 617). The boxes I brought over from my previous career are still stacked, unopened, in my TechCrunch office. A lone painting from my three-year-old son adorns the wall. I have not had time to unpack or even buy a bookshelf to put things on. Fourteen years worth of stuff, and it still amazes me I don’t need any of it.
The journalist in me has been avoiding this post (too navel-gazing, too self-absorbed), but the blogger in me can’t help it. Media is changing—how it is produced and how it is consumed. The worlds of blogging and journalism are colliding and I want to get some thoughts down on this transition before I forget what the old world was like or feel too comfortable in the new one. (Fair warning: If you don’t like long posts, skip this one).
Just as more and more blogs are building up professional writing staffs, more and more newspapers and magazines are requiring that their writers start blogging. A quick glance at the Techmeme Leaderboard, for instance, shows that its top spots are almost evenly split between blogs and traditional news organizations. Note that the blogs are all of the professional variety, complete with writing staffs (TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider, GigaOm, VentureBeat, etc.) and that the highest ranking news sites (CNET and the New York Times) also have the most active journalist bloggers.
But remember that all the big blogs that have turned professional and are now out there trying to build small media businesses started out as personal. Also, remember that these blogs (TechCrunch included) represent a tiny, tiny sliver of the millions of blogs out there. Unlike others, I don’t draw as sharp a dividing line between professional and personal blogs. Any blogger can rise to the level of contributing to the public discourse. Those that do so on a consistent basis—such as Dave Winer, Robert Scoble, Nick Carr, Mark Cuban, Fred Wilson, and others—gain wide followings, and with that a responsibility to their readers that is equal to any journalist’s.
A more useful distinction is that there are sources of information that readers trust and sources of information that they don’t. Once someone reaches that level of trust, their responsibility is to tell the truth as best they can.
For me, blogging and journalism began to blur long ago. I took over the Business 2.0 blog (which became the Next Net) from Damon Darlin, now technology editor at the New York Times. That was back in May, 2005, one month before Michael Arrington started TechCrunch—which just goes to show that Michael and I have been on the same wavelength from the start. Of course, back then, he took blogging much more seriously than I did.
At Business 2.0, my blog was always a side project—although it grew to 50,000 feed subscribers. I was paid to write, package, and orchestrate articles for the print magazine—in addition to other sidelines, which included organizing mini-conferences and dabbling in Web video. Eventually, blogging became more important to the magazine—all writers and editors had to start one. But it could never quite shake that extracurricular tinge.
Working at TechCrunch is a completely different experience. For one thing, I no longer write long-form, narrative journalism. There is not much time for story-telling (except for weekend posts like this one). It is mostly breaking news, reporting facts and providing analysis. At TechCrunch, I am completely focused on blogging, 24/7. With a few exceptions, no single post is very difficult to write (unlike an in-depth magazine article that can require 50 interviews and weeks of travel, for instance). But taken as a whole, blogging is actually harder. That is because the blogging never stops. Just ask my wife and kids, who now mock me by repeating back my new mantra: “I’m almost done, just one more post.”
Putting out TechCrunch is like riding a bullet train. When I jumped aboard, it was already going 150 miles per hour. Six months ago, the main TechCrunch site was attracting about two million visitors a month and it was ranked No. 4 on the Technorati 100 list of the most linked-to blogs. Today, six months later, we are within spitting distance of three million visitors a month (2.9 million, to be exact), and last week we overtook Engadget for the first time to reach the No. 1 spot on the Technorati 100. (We’ll see how long that lasts, the Hufifngton Post is right on our tail).
So what is the TechCrunch formula? It is hard to say other than obsession. The main TechCrunch blog is written by four of us—Michael, Duncan, Mark, and me. (When I began, there were five, but Nick Gonzalez decided to opt for the comparatively saner hours of a startup). Despite our small size, we are a global organization. When not traveling, Michael and Mark write from California, Duncan writes from Australia, and I write from New York. Somebody is always online—often all of us. Michael literally never sleeps. It is really unhealthy.
What we do at TechCrunch is actually pretty simple. We write about Web startups and the larger tech companies that try to either copy or acquire them. Depending on the day, I could be liveblogging the launch of the Amazon Kindle, arguing about free speech in the Internet age, uncovering secret projects at Google, giving Yahoo unsolicited acquisition advice, or writing about a hot new startup.
There is always something else to write about, and not enough time to cover it. But we live or die by how fast we can post after a story breaks, if we can’t break it ourselves. We hardly have time to proofread our posts, as anyone who’s come across one of the frequent typos in TechCrunch knows. Luckily, our readers love to point out our mistakes in comments. They are our copy editors and fact checkers. (We love you guys). Our philosophy is that it is better to get 70 percent of a story up fast and get the basic facts right than to wait another hour (or a day) to get the remaining 30 percent. We can always update the post or do another one as new information comes in. More often than not, putting up partial information is what leads us to the truth—a source contacts us with more details or adds them directly into comments.
Some people question whether TechCrunch is even a blog anymore rather than a professional media site. But that distinction is becoming increasingly meaningless. The truth is that we are both. We compete with traditional news organizations, but with a small fraction of their staff. That is our competitive advantage. We certainly cover the news and do original reporting, but we also discuss news reported by others and are not shy about voicing our personal opinions. We are as much a filter as a source.
There is something about blogging—the immediacy, the give and take, the point of view—that helps it compete with traditional media for attention. And we don’t want to lose that. We like to speculate, argue, and debate—sometimes in ways that traditional journalists may think is unseemly. That’s okay, as long as our readers keep coming back for more.
Because what is a blog? It is a conversation with readers. And you don’t have to start a conversation knowing all the facts. But it helps if you end up with more than you start out with, and if you turn out to be right more often than wrong. Otherwise, people will stop listening to you—the same as they would with any media source.
(Hubble Telescope photo of colliding galaxies via Oswaldo).
What your basically saying is that Tech Crunch has sucked your life into the blogsphere? Sure sounds like it. With being the co-editor has that have any affect of ownership/ pay scale on this this blog? Since you have done more growth in the this blog in six months and then many people try to do in two years, has any other blog tried to recruit you yet?
Great post! Thanks for the informed perspective as we move into this next phase where new “new media” empires might easily be built on WordPress 2.5
Hey congratulations Erick, I’ve been trying to contact you via email but I think your filters might be snagging me, can you attempt to send me an email, it’d be much appreciated!
Cheers and Godspeed,
Jm
The thing about blogging is that everything comes in clips and newsbites. I enjoy the format, however, it’s almost like listening to the radio..before you finish hearing the song you are listening to you are wondering whats coming up next…so almost everything you consume becomes meaningless…and it’s expiration never extends past 24 hours…(blogs get updated every 24 hours…if you are lucky).
TechCrunch is addictive, good or bad.
Erick
Yes, I agree that TC has become a professional media site and a blog. Just stock brokers are guilty of pump and dump. TC is guilty og pumping the same companies day in and dayout. Very little attention is given to true startups. TC is losing it’s roots in many ways.
That was totally live journal.
Erick, you are one class gentleman and I bid you kudos my friend.
TechCrunch’s success, to me, is focusing on 2 things and doing them better than others: 1) breaking important news and 2) offering unique perspectives.
There are TechCrunch-wannabes out there, which also offer breaking news, but many times one can shrug them off, and they also offer their own views, yet with less bite and often whimsical.
A successful blog has a fine blend of seriousness and fun, and Mr. Arrington apparently knows the art of it.
I’ve been following TechCrunch ever since Scoble brought Arrington and that guy from Kotaku to meet with Bill Gates. I remember saying, “Who’s that guy with the chubby cheeks?”
Keep it up, dudes!
My first time here. Found your blog very interesting. Guess, I will be coming here more often now.. Keep it going.. Great work…
TechCrunch has remained a “must read” while making a transition from a one-dude-in-an-Atherton-house blog to a multi-writer blog done all over the world. Congrats!
Erick,
I have great respect and admiration for you and all of the other TechCrunch writers. The company is a trusted member of my tribe and a source for a lot of my thinking. I grant you influence in my life, and that should count for something.
I work with traditional media companies who suffer from the belief that what you describe as “long-form, narrative journalism” is the only “real” form of journalism, and that is false. News is a process, not a finished product, and the blog format fits that nicely. What you do is as “real” as what you used to do, and I think it’s actually more important.
Henry Adams once said, “The dream of man is order, but the way of nature is chaos.”
Welcome to the way of nature.
Terry
re: “I want to get some thoughts down on this transition before I forget what the old world was like or feel too comfortable in the new one”
Holy smokes Erik..
That quote is a real keeper…
well it sounds like you need a assistant to take care of all that unpacked stuff, and to go to the store for food and drinks or just to roll up a blunt or two.
Man it sounds like yall doing just what you like to do. I don’t even have .0001% of the traffic that TC has and i Spend hours online checking here singing up there and posting about all kinds of things i discover online so i can only imagine never leaving a room all day and just behind a computer.
If i was getting paid I think i had died and go to heaven after the first check because doing what you love is what is all about. Great post and i can start my internship asap..lol
Erick,
You are a classy gentlemen. I followed Time for years, and TC from its inception. Take care of your health.
Erick,
It’s hard to believe that you’ve been there for six months. I always enjoy reading the posts: I wonder how many others have used tips provided here to buy and sell stock?
Congrats keep up the good work. Cheers.
two thumbs up!
get some sleep, how do the slashdot people do it?
Maybe I’m the only one saying this (and I can’t believe you’re blogging on a sunday), and please don’t take this as a negative, but I find myself reading fewer articles on this blog. I used to read every one religiously. Now I read 2-3 per day only if the title interests me. There are just too many posts to keep up with them all (to read, so I can’t imagine writing them all); maybe breaking them apart into different subject areas or even types instead of all in one blog might help? I’m sure there are busisiness and financial concerns involved, but I’ve noticed that a company that gets covered is lucky if their post stays on the front page for even one full day which I thought that was the point of the original blog.
Keeping up with news 24/7 seems a different animal - and maybe where the real revenue / page views are generated - personally I’d rather read correct-news than first-news -> meaning analysis pieces are of more interest to me than being first to break something, esp. if it intrudes onto your personal lives. It’d be nice to have the tech news & op-ed separated from the start-up reviews so they still have a home.
Yeah, I’ve been saying this too, and I find it a scary and nasty development that tekkies funded by tech companies, or covering start-ups and therefore having everybody beholden to them, are now covering the news of tech, and not just stopping there, but covering ALL news, and not covering it with sane analysis, or sound editorial judgement backed by peer review in a professional editorial board, or journalistic 5ws and fact-checking, but with emotional outbursts pretending to be cynical hard-nosed tech judgement. Like, “Let’s all hate FriendFeed or let’s all hate Second Life because it’s all lame and stupid.”
The worse thing about all this is the bleeding of the cynical geeky mentality out into covering not just tech, but *anything*. It’s the belief that because technology is fast, and it is possessed by you all, and you are Masters of the Universe, you can now just pronounce on *anything* and have it just stick, and resonate in an ego-driven echo-chamber of followers. If you all decide you love Obama because you imagine it is a blank slate you can write your tech agenda on to, then if anybody starts objecting, they get a link to a hateful anti-Hilary YouTube, or a 140-character Twitter that Hilary is a monster instead of reasoned argument.
It was one thing to have journalists, schooled in the humanities, people who had read books and philosophy and thought about universal values and such, to be writing about world and national issues, and tech too. That was the old days. Sure, some of those journalists were part of the ruling class and were indistinguishable from the titans of industry and government they were supposed to cover. But that could hardly be said of all of them or even of the last 50 years where it is journalism that uncovered Enron or Abu Ghraib.
What you now have are snotty, insolent people without any background in the humanities whatsoever, without some kind of apprenticed news judgement, merely raised on the Internet and often cloaked in anonymity, able to make everybody read Wikipedia, run by anonymous elitists without accountability, and drop any meme they like into the well.
And even where you have people who should know better who have perhaps substituted a life of studying the humanities with a lot of weekend hippie Zen retreats in California, you get really bad stuff.
Example: Dave Winer, influencer extraordinaire, can just put up a blog and say “Everybody in the Northeast is Racist”. He can declare Geraldine Ferraro as “racist” just because there’s a stampede that gets started that’s all about trying to prove the lefty white guys are more cool than thou. And if you try to object, if you try to say something, you can’t post on his blog, you are erased.
Or Shel Israel can declare piously on Twitter to his 1,700 followers the the public at large, “I feel for the Tibetan people” but then back the Chinese and say the Olympics should go forward, without apparently considerating any sort of moral demonstration, even, let alone a boycott. And if you call him on behaving that way, you are called an anonymous asshole (I’m not), blocked, banned, etc.
Regular newspapers didn’t just let anybody publish, to be sure. But it’s been found in studies lately and we can all anecdotally illustrate it that the New York Times or amazon.com or New Republic have a higher tolerance for criticism, even sharp criticism, in their comments section, than many of these tech ego blogs. They can just shut down anyone they don’t like “just because” and no one can question them because, well, freedom of the press belongs to him who owns one, and if you don’t like it, start your own blog, etc.
The swarming around of these tekkie influencers into every new social media thingie that comes down the pike and their rapid slurping up of giant friend lists that slavishly follow their every pontification, all under the guise of an intimate conversation, is really one of the biggest rackets in the universe these days, because nobody is covering the news without fear our favour, or attenting to the afflicting of the comfortable and comforting of the afflicted.
I like reading TechCrunch because it’s inspiring. Makes me want to keep plugging away at my own sites.
I few longer posts like this one would be welcome every now and again.
Best,
John
I’ve been blogging for only five months and I agree, I have no life anymore…also tougher to get people interested in day trading vs. technology
Thanks for all the kind words. It goes without say, but it is this kind of immediate feedback that really keeps a writer going.
Nicely worded, as usual. I much prefer your longer posts to the quick hits and I disagree with the need to get 70% up fast. TechCrunch isn’t so much about analysis anymore, is it? Spending 10 minutes thinking about something is not exactly going deep.
Since when does quick posting = better? I’d like to see the argument for that fleshed out. Do you see your readership numbers drop off if you post something a day later? I kind of doubt it, and you’re ignoring the whole long tail, which is where most blogs get their traffic (60-70% daily traffic from search engines.)
The whole blog/Twitter/faster stuff is fun but I like to get off the crazy train and get back to letting concepts cerminate and seep a bit deeper into my brain before posting, which I’ve done almost daily since 2002.
Many bloggers are moving towards less posts and more thought pieces. I would also argue that being #1 on Technorati doesn’t mean that much, but traffic is traffic and you guys need an exit strategy.
I just hope the quality doesn’t keep going down as you try to cram more posts in every day, there is a time when more != better.
Michael looks like death warmed over, scary.
Erick! This is a really thoughtful and interesting take on things. Agree that facilitating *conversation* is why blogs are such a great news vehicle. Also that being a fliter is a lot cheaper than being a source, which is creating both opportunity and challenge because unlike Matt and Mark I think a lot of *important news* and perspective is drifting away from us as we all loose sleep trying to catch the last glimmer of a neat tech news item as it blends into the first glimmer of the next news day.
Wow, an active community. No breaks on weekends?
(http://adecon101.blogspot.com/2008/03/news-turn-bbc-into-empire-on-which-sun.html)
@22
HA HA HA spam
@20
I dont worry too much about the tech elite bloggers and their lack of journalistic standards. In time as the big boys start to learn the game they will bring the standards up. Some of the stuff on this site has been grade a writing and some has been straight bull, but over all i like whats here.
What i do hate is when people equate blogging as a way of doing something rather then a format or tool to deliver content. This site is a professional daily tech newspaper and its that simple. I do think a lot of these pro blogs could stand to start to hire some of those old media journalist to help raise their game tho.
I also wonder how thing are gonna change in the future, people tend to forget that a great number of people are not internet savvy yet and as they be come so they are not all gonna become tech heads and want their news from techcrunch and the like. Im waiting to see more mainstrean blogs begin to grow.
Good post, I like, High Five
Some of the articles, not necessarily yours, seem to be posted to incite people. Too much flaming has been allowed and I think that brings down the overall quality of the site. Also, as I stated earlier, too much pumping of the same sites repeatedly. Moreover, the tech world as seen by TC is tilted primarily to SV and the same VC good ole boy network. I read an article on CNNMoney whereby Arrington stated he would prefer to go back to covering just startups.
Shame he got away from that.
I finally figured it out. Many of your sentiments fit well with the analogy - TechCrunch is the JT Marlin of the blogging world.
Erick… this is the best blog post ever. Nice to get a post written in this voice once in a while… weekends can be cool. Start a new trend!! End the bitchmemes!!
wtg, love this post.. gonna share it everywhere.
Nice post Erik. I especially like the last paragraph.
Erick*, sorry–typo.
This week will also mark the one year anniversary of the day Heather, our CEO, started.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....h-heather/
#26, how is me expressing my opinion spam?
Thank you .. Really interesting .
http://www.jaxey.com
@DJ Hyjak,
Hiring an old media journalist would only bring TechCrunch down. They are slow and don’t work enough. They sure as hell can write but I don’t read TechCrunch for their writing skills. I read it because I enjoy hearing about new companies, what their experienced tech writers think about them, and breaking tech news.
There maybe some old media journalists out there but I bet 95% couldn’t keep up and they would demand too much money and not understand equity.
Great post, and always a pleasure to read your writing Erick. Loved your summary about trust: I’m a huge believer that as blogs become more mainstream (and mainstream moves to blogging), trust will become an even more important criterion. I really believe that writers (journalists and bloggers) will have public track records of trust (reputation) and news sites will slowly mature and focus on news that is credible and trustworthy, rather than popularity. Trust may be the journalistic currency of the future.
after scanning the post (which i have started doing … scanning versus reading)..
it got me smiling that the old world of journalism is breaking down and journalists are now best at what they do, while being free and not cluttered in office or official atmosphere.
As long as you can spend time with your dear ones while working.. thats a dream life
. Enjoy it while it lasts !
smiley post there.
Erick, interesting post. I’m glad you squeezed in some time to reflect on your crazy job. I’ve been thinking about this issue too–but from the perspective ot one of those old media writers who is still writing long-form narrative journalism.
In fact, I just mentioned TechCrunch and Silicon Alley Insider in a post that is related to this topic on my blog. In the post I argue that in the last month Web journalism reached a sort of tipping point or new level of credibility/value. Check it out the post called “Shattered Links: Why Web Journalism Will Only Get More Powerful” here: http://creativecapital.wordpress.com/
Great post, Erick.
Congrats on a job well done, guys!
It’s been enough said : great post (and take care of your health/sanity).
But am I the only one to take this hint from the color of links in your screen capture (purple for the recently visited ones, blue for the not visited in a while - generally a few days ) :
- you’ve been reading: TechCrunch, New York Times, Silicon Alley Insider, Wall Street Journal ;
- you have NOT been reading (at least for some while): CNET, Infoworld, GigaOm, ReadWriteWeb, ArsTechnica,… ?!
(I leave to others to debate what conclusions to draw from this (tiny tiny) bit of competitive intelligence that you inadvertently let out…
(BTW, you are right, “conversation” is the spice that makes blogs more interesting than mainstream media
Blogging is Ranting. Professional journalism is just too conservative to allow freedom of expression that blogging does.
TechCrunch keep it up, the more topics you cover the more fun and educational it is. We need to talk about politics and how the candidates and political parties are social engineering the society via the Internet.
I don’t think that the Techmeme Leaderboard is an accurate representation of anything. I can understand circ numbers in traditional publishing, and ratings on TV which are shady enough as it is. Are ads sold on the basis of Techmeme leaderboard stats? I think what it does reflect is that there are dozens of people writing the same story (and that doesn’t even include the people that Techmeme doesn’t follow) …. We all know the best magazines don’t necessarily have the highest readership numbers. The tech web media space is a very small world which you forget when you’re entrenched in it. I find myself hearing news first on Yahoo actually and find it entertaining to learn something, twit about it, and then watch other people twit about it at varied times over the next 12 hours. I stopped looking at techmeme and don’t miss it. I came across this article to day because I’m researching and have found Techcrunch and Mashable to be the most valuable resources. With Wired & The New York Times offering a different sometimes more comprehensive perspective.
When will we see Techcrunch reviews in video, or at least part in video? Duncan? Mike?
Check out http://www.twittermethis.com to win prizes on Twitter.
Great post and fun to get a peek into how you run Techcrunch. You guys write such great stuff. I check the site several times every day.
However, like Angela Penny I am not sure what you are trying to illustrate with the Techmeme Leaderboard. Could you explain, pls.
Techcrunch is at the top of the Techmeme Leaderboard because of the way Techmeme works and the focus of the initial white list of sites.
I hope you suggest that the list shows that Techcrunch is more relevant than NY Times on the topics that are Techcrunch’s main focus.
If you mean to suggest that Techcrunch (or even the Crunch empire) is generally a more important/influential media company than Techcrunch, then I hope Michael will make sure you get some rest.
I’ve been reading every post for a couple months now and the number one thing that keeps me interested (aside from the best content available) is the work ethic of the TechCrunch crew. Nothing beats a badass crew that helps guide the Internet in a positive direction by offering a powerful community voice when important issues like music tax arise.
The rate at which quality posts fly up has encouraged me to devote more time to developing better writing habits. As a bioengineer you spend too many hours playing with numbers, writing simulations and remembering facts, and too few hours learning to write well.
When I run my first marathon I’m going to wear a TechCrunch t-shirt to represent nerds that are hardcore and know how to get shit done.
as i read all the othere comments i feel that you guys at techcrunch give me a fix of technology that i need. I come back to TC about 10 to 20 times a day just to make sure im not missing something new. And i rather come strait to the site i don’t like using Rss Readers it feels so plain and sometimes there are articles that didn’t get posted yet in the reader so i rather just go to the source. If TC Didn’t Post on sunday i would have nothing to do right now so thank you for posting on sundays.
T.V. Is right next to me but i rather be online.
14 years in box and you don’t need the supplies.
That is the evidence of transformation in media. We bloggers pack light. I’m interested to see what happens when you open up the boxes…
Erick… strange, that such a personal post as this would get me excited about TechCrunch again. But it did.
Well played sir.
TechCrunch is the favorite blog of thousands of people and it will continue to get better the more popular it gets. How about a timed community challenge for the readers of TechCrunch with a little prize at the end? The Challenge: The reader community gets 60 days to promote and encourage new readers to subscribe to TechCrunch. If the number of subscribers breaks 1 million within that time then 1,000 readers get TechCrunch t-shirts to sport all around the World.
The readers want to see TechCrunch beat out CNET too. Why not get started?
WOW
I loved the products of the Business 2.0 professional journalist and amateur blogger Erik Schonfeld but instantly lost the interest in the professional blogger and fading journalist Erik Schonfeld after reading the first posts here at TechChrunch as they were too lengthy for quick blog posts and without any remarkable personality or idiosyncrasies. Therefore it was good to read this more personal post.
Wow! Thanx for pulling back the curtains a little bit. I’m not sure if Arrington suggested this post, but it seems to me switching gears with this “letter” endeared listeners who might have thought about unsubscribing b/c of the increased posts… Keep growing, maybe being the next C|net won’t be that bad…
Congrats Erick! Keep up the great work all you guys.
Not to get off topic, Michael Arrington why is Heather so much in the background? What sort of duties does she really do? Will she ever blog?
Dude, I love your stories, in fact everyone at TechCrunch does such an awesome job of stories, resources(crunchbase/personal help) & events. It’s a great company and that’s why you are the leaders.
Great journal. Keep up!
@20, nice rant. Not sure what you are trying to imply exactly, but I was in fact “schooled in the humanities.” As for blogs like ours not tolerating criticism, I don’t see anyone taking down your comment.
@24, it would be nice to slow down and go deep all the time. Unfortunately, frequency and speed are directly correlated with readership.
@43, @47, the point of putting up the Techmeme leaderboard was merely to show how evenly split it is between traditional and newer media. And, sorry, but you cannot surmise my reading habits from the purple links. It just means I read them in my feed reader
Hey, any blogs that specialize on HARDWARE start-ups?
It’s a worry that you feel the need to warn people about it being a long post when the post comes out at a mere 1300-odd words.
Are people’s attention spans really that short?
“At TechCrunch, I am completely focused on blogging, 24/7. … But taken as a whole, blogging is actually harder. That is because the blogging never stops. Just ask my wife and kids, who now mock me by repeating back my new mantra: “I’m almost done, just one more post.”
How sad. Your family is more important than your 24/7 blogging obsession. I applaud the hard work but isn’t there a point at which your life needs to go beyond TC? I read that article and felt bad for your 3 year old son who hears “just one more post” from his daddy all the time.
What’s the balance?
@#63 .. come on duncan… don’t use a fake name…
(j/k)
@60 (Erick) Fair enough
Then, it raises another issue (for publishers and advertisers) : how to monetize their content if people access it mainly through RSS (the whole debate of adifying RSS feeds).
In any case, to participate in the comment thread forces one to come to the actual site…