Kara Swisher: AllThingsD was profitable, but Re/code will probably lose money this year
“I Think Google's Pretty Dangerous and Thuggish. I've Always Said That.” — Kara Swisher, outspoken tech journalist, has a lot on her mind. … San Francisco: You recently split …
Context & Ripple Effects
Kara Swisher left her long-running AllThingsD franchise behind a large-media parent to launch Re/code as an independent outlet earlier in 2014, and this San Francisco Magazine interview is her first extended accounting of what that independence costs: she confirms the old site made money while predicting the new one will run a loss this year.
The quote traveled unusually far for a magazine sit-down — CNET picked it up and journalists including Peter Kafka, Heidi Moore and John Battelle amplified it on Twitter — because it doubles as a statement of editorial posture: she calls Google 'pretty dangerous and thuggish,' a pointed stance from the reporter whose beat depends on Silicon Valley access. It also closes a loop on her own history; back in 2012 she joked about buying TechCrunch, and now she is running her own rival newsroom instead.
First-order effects
- Re/code's expected first-year loss puts the burden on its backers to fund an independent newsroom through a ramp-up period its profitable predecessor never had to weather on its own.
- Swisher publicly branding Google 'dangerous and thuggish' hardens the terms of engagement between the most covered company on her beat and the outlet whose reporting relies on it.
Second-order effects
- Rival tech outlets — including TechCrunch, the site she once joked about acquiring — now compete against the best-sourced reporter on their beat who can absorb losses while building an audience from scratch.
- Advertisers and conference sponsors weighing the new independent against publisher-backed competitors gain negotiating leverage from the admitted gap in near-term profitability.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, tech media bifurcates into publisher-owned franchises expected to earn their keep and venture-funded independents that trade profitability for independence — with sources and readers following whoever funds sustained scoops.
- A top beat reporter openly framing a platform giant as 'thuggish' signals that the biggest companies can no longer assume friendly coverage from the journalists who built their beats alongside them.
The trend: Tech journalism is splitting off from big-media parents into independent, loss-tolerant newsrooms whose economics rest on brand and sourcing rather than institutional subsidy.