Yesterday I received five calls about the situation over at TechCrunch concerning the status of its founder, Michael Arrington. The calls caught me off guard. A couple of people wanted quotes from me and I’m not sure why. Others are longtime friends in the Silicon Valley world that just wanted to talk about it in a totally high-school way. One question that came up in all five calls was, “Do you think that AOL is killing great editorial?”
Let’s take a journey back to March, when Josh Topolsky announced he was leaving Engadget. For a lot of people (not me), Josh was Engadget. He connected with millions of readers. His opinions and articles were respected throughout the consumer electronics industry. Yet AOL had no problem changing Engadget into a site he no longer felt passionate about.
The situation at TechCrunch is murkier, but it ultimately comes down to the same thing. For a lot of people, Michael Arrington is TechCrunch. Like Josh, he has connected with millions of readers over the years. Yet AOL, Arianna Huffington in particular, has no problem with kicking him off the site he founded.
I understand what AOL is thinking. It’s true that the sites and brands it bought are bigger than any one person. It’s true that Engadget continued to be successful without Topolsky and TechCrunch will continue to be successful if Arrington is fired. However, I believe the children are our future that Engadget isn’t as good without Topolsky and TechCrunch won’t be as good without Arrington. That said, I don’t think any of that matters to number crunchers and shareholders. Traffic and readers can be replaced as easily as writers and editors.
(Oh wait, I suddenly realized why these people called me. They know I think that…certain web sites are worse without me. Ha! I should have caught onto that earlier. I’m a little slow sometimes.)
Anyway, let me know what you think about what’s going on in AOL editorial land. Is the big company sucking the soul out of the web sites it buys? Or are popular bloggers making the situation bigger than it ought to be?
I find that I use engadget less honestly. I can't remember the last time their site was breaking a story or gave a really good write up on tech. Their stories are shorter and shorter like Giz.
I stick with Ars as my main tech site.
As much as some people love Topolsky, I think Engadget was better when it was Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. I still enjoy the site, but it has been getting worse and worse (for me) over the years.
Ars is really a different kind of site than Engadget or Gizmodo. It's not blog-style writing.
True. I enjoy their in depth articles. Sorry, didn't mean to seem like I was advertising another site on your blog. rpad.tv kicks ass for community and great humor/insight compared to the competition. Ars is if you want to know the difference between a sandybridge and bulldozer at the transistor level!
:)
Dude, I'm an Ars fan too! No need to apologize.