Helpful Tips For Keeping Your Job As Editor Of Techcrunch
I rarely get writers block, but I've aborted multiple attempts to write about the leadership change at TechCrunch yesterday. So I'm going to keep it simple. — I'm exceptionally bummed that so many people have left TechCrunch.
Context & Ripple Effects
The leadership change at the top of TechCrunch is the latest act in a conflict-of-interest arc that has run since mid-2011, when the site disclosed its editor's startup investments and then, by January 2012, adopted strict new COI rules for its coverage. The Uncrunched post — written on the founder's personal blog rather than the site itself — is a sour coda to that sequence, mourning the staff departures that followed the editor shuffle.
The pattern is older than the conflict fight: back in 2007, coverage of the founder sharing his pulpit already flagged how entangled TechCrunch's editorial voice was with its ownership. What makes today unusual is the reaction loop — the syndication list includes TechCrunch itself and the departing editor's own account responding, so the shake-up is being litigated in public across the same outlets it disrupts.
First-order effects
- Remaining TechCrunch staffers face an editor transition layered on top of newly strict conflicts policies, and the confirmed wave of departures thins the newsroom exactly when the brand is renegotiating its editorial identity.
- Erick Schonfeld, named in the syndicated reaction to the change, exits a perch that gave him standing in Silicon Valley's attention economy — his next move becomes an immediate market test of whether TechCrunch writers carry their audience with them.
Second-order effects
- Rival tech blogs gain a hiring window: a confirmed exodus from the most-read startup outlet hands competitors experienced reporters plus the credibility narrative of a site in turmoil.
- AOL's stewardship of TechCrunch now gets judged against the founder era, pushing other owner-operated media properties to decide how much autonomy to grant editors whose names are the franchise.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, personality-driven tech media keeps splitting into two models — founder-owned blogs like Uncrunched that trade on a single voice, and corporately owned mastheads governed by formal conflicts regimes — with talent migrating between them each time ownership asserts control.
The trend: Founder-built tech publications are being professionalized under corporate owners, and every editorial intervention now triggers public departures, rival poaching, and a counter-narrative published on the founder's own blog.