Drop in traffic highlights problems at TechCrunch
Jinfo Blog

By Penny Crossland

Abstract

TechCrunch now seems a shadow of its former self with traffic having dropped significantly. Management differences have caused problems but it is also questionable as to whether cutting edge blogs can actually survive within large media companies.

Item

Digital media pundits have long been aware of the unhappy atmosphere at the merged AOL/Huffington Post office, with derogatory comments about Arianna Huffington’s managerial abilities and her lack of popularity amongst staff rearing their heads in the blogosphere from June last year onwards.

Now matters seem to have come to a head at TechCrunch, the digital technology blog part of the AOL stable. paidContent broke the news last week that, according to comScore, traffic to the site had dropped by 35% between January 2011 and 2012, reaching 15 million page views in January this year. Unique visitor numbers are significantly down, too.

TechCrunch, known for its scoops and breaking news stories in the technology sector, is now a shadow of its former influential self. The drop in traffic is seen by observers as a direct consequence of the large number of departures from the editorial staff in recent months, and as of last week, the blog is on its third editor since the AOL takeover. Founder Michael Arrington was fired in the autumn of last year and last week vented his anger at Arianna Huffington’s management style that has caused the downward spiral at his old company.

The problems at TechCrunch are undoubtedly due to a clash of personalities, however there is more to it than that. A year ago, LiveWire reported on a leaked document which seemed to point to the fact that AOL was more interested in SEO than quality reporting, highlighting the dangers of ad-supported rather than subscription-supported content. GigaOM’s purchase of the Guardian Media Group’s paidContent in February – reported by LiveWire here – will not help matters at TechCrunch.

The question is whether cutting edge blogs survive under the ownership of large media companies. Jan Knight addressed this issue in her interesting post here, and also argued that blogging on technology news and trends is changing as online users are looking for more local news faster and presented to them in smaller chunks.

With so many experienced writers having left TechCrunch it was only a question of time before some of them went down just that route. In January, former TechCrunch contributor Sara Lacy launched her own technology site called Pando Daily, backed by none other than Michael Arrington’s Crunchfund. It comments on and shares news from around the web, but focuses on breaking Silicon Valley stories. No doubt there will be more to follow …

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