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Ask HN: How would you improve TechCrunch?

9 points by transatlantic ↗ HN
Or ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Alley Insider, etc.?

I'd like to see more about new and early-stage startups and less about every real or imagined bit of news relating to Facebook, Google or Apple. Insight about how Startup X solved some important problem with a team of four holds a lot more interest for me than the latest Twitter rumor.

I don't ever expect to see this out of the established news outlets, since startups don't deliver nearly the page views of rumors and iPhones and lawsuits. But it has me wondering whether there's enough demand for a competitor offering high-quality reporting exclusively in this niche from the start, and the other ways in which they could improve on what's already out there. And how they'd make money doing it.

7 comments

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nudge
I would read that. It would be really interesting to see a news source that focused on startups that are still, you know, starting up. Maybe you could have a rule where you only report on companies until they either fold or start bringing in serious money.

The problem would be finding enough to write about. I think a lot of the rumor articles aren't there only because the authors like rumors - it's because the authors have explicit or implicit blogging quotas.

But maybe there are enough out there. If you focused only on the small companies, and put the word out, they'd probably come to you to announce their announcements, so you wouldn't be short of material.

Come up with clear criteria for what you'll cover - it'll be easier to position yourself and for people to see why they should keep coming back.

The money would probably not be huge, but you could make some from advertising. I'm sure some of the companies you write about would be willing to buy some ads or sponsored 'spotlight' posts. Post several times a day, with one spotlight a week for, I don't know, $X00. There's some not-insubstantial money right there.

minalecs
I agree.. I would like to focus more on tech and startups vs the rumors/controversy.. even hackernews is becoming more like techcrunch/rww/mashables and less like startup news.
AmberShah
I think Mixergy does this but I think there's room for more.
fookyong
I don't think that's Techcrunch's mission now.

However, they could start a sister site (like CrunchGear) and dedicate it to that. I wonder why they haven't... the market is probably a bit too niche. It would require the same amount of manpower as something like CrunchGear, but have a smaller readership.

Maybe an opportunity for a subscription-based Techcrunch sister site?

DistortedRhymes
Techcrunch used to be my favourite site a few years back because (from what I can remember) it was very much about start-ups. Now its got all sorts of junk about general tech stuff, products, bla bla bla. If I had my way get rid of all these new blog posters at TechCrunch and just have Arrington and one or two others. They just seem to be writing opinion and waffle pieces these days. I wish I could just get Arringtons posts, rather that the rest.