Technology

TechCrunch and Wired, a fight or a scam?

Written by Trick on May 14, 2008 10:20 am EST

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I honestly don’t care about the Wired vs TechCrunch debacle which has unfolded since TechCrunch announced the deal with the Washington Post. Seriously, it doesn’t affect me in any way. What does affect me is the thought that their skiff is nothing more than drama for the sake of publicity.

Imagine if the Pepsi and Coke CEOs decided to brawl on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It’s the same idea. There’s no real reason to it. TechCrunch isn’t about to change its ways (and it shouldn’t have to.) The Washington Post is happy as its page views continue to climb. Wired is also getting page views as people go to read their inflammatory posts but they’re trading reputation for this publicity.

What reason does Wired have for picking this fight? They’re attacking a blog for being… editorial. That’s the whole point of Blogs, they’re editorial. Every post TechCrunch makes is the opinion of its author, they review products, bestow the crown on the chosen sites. Sure Arrington has investments, he fully discloses each of them and life goes on.

It seems to me there are only three possible reasons for Wired to open this battle:

1) Wired is trying to break up the deal between the Washington Post and TechCrunch. Out of jealousy and economic reasons.

2) Wired and TechCrunch are just trying to get some press. Any press is good press.

3) Schiffman is just trying to get her name splashed around by causing this chaos. Sure she may end up getting canned from Wired if things go south, but if she comes out on top she’ll have “street cred.”

I feel the first of those is much more likely to me, and I’m very sad to see that this has happened at all. I’ve lost a lot of respect for Wired.

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