Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Blog

Dear Boston: Stop outsourcing the news

By Galen Moore

On Monday, I accepted a position as web editor, down the hall at the Boston Business Journal. Over the next three weeks, I’ll be dialing down my coverage of tech news, so I thought I’d take this opportunity for a Parthian shot. All you Boston boosters, I’m calling you out.

When I got to Mass High Tech two and a half years ago, people talked about how closed-minded Boston was. Now, they talk about how close-knit Boston is, and the help that’s readily available from mentors. Boston has more seed investors and more parties. We also have more tech news media. Xconomy seemed new when I started. And BostInnovation still is new. Even the Boston Herald has stepped up tech industry coverage. That’s not even counting grass-roots media resources like Greenhorn Connect that have become essential.

The competition has gotten tougher because the business here has gotten a lot busier.

So I’m calling out all you Boston players who make big talk on supporting the local tech-industry “ecosystem,” then turn around to hand an exclusive to a remote-control news operation.

Everyone knows they can get an article on TechCrunch if they offer an exclusive, and pushing that button justifies a tech PR person’s paycheck like nothing else. TechCrunch gets a startup many more pageviews than any of the four or five professional news organizations that regularly cover the tech beat here.

But are you running into TechCrunch writers at WebInno? Of course you’re not. Boston’s go-to outlet for big news won’t even put a freelancer on the ground here. TC has writers in Chicago, London and New York, but not Boston. A month or two ago I had the pleasure of an email exchange with Erick Schonfeld about the possibility of putting one here. In spite of the efforts of a handful of Boston technorati to convince him, he hasn’t done so yet.

You know what would convince him? If he stopped getting spoon-fed press releases on exclusive.

I’m not crying poormouth. Boston’s tech pubs are getting scoops without your help. Like Xconomy’s excellent coverage of MIT blackjack whiz Seymon Dukach’s end-around IPO registration costs. Or BostInnovation’s sneak peek at a new brand face for CSN Stores. Or our own scoops on UsTrendy’s funding round with Draper Associates, or the multi-million-dollar cleantech center Fraunhofer is involved with in South Boston.

So next time you list the things Boston is doing right, put the city’s tech media on your list, maybe somewhere just below parties. And your nicest scoops? Duh. Save them for MHT editor Jim Connolly (jconnolly@masshightech.com). And blind cc me.