Time was when just about everyone in Silicon Valley read the San Jose Business Journal as fast as fast as they could get their hands on it. Strange for a business journal, but there was a specific reason and that was the gossip column begun by Greg Zachary who eventually went on to the Wall Street Journal. He was followed by Cordell Koland who now owns SIPR, the PR firm that I founded.
Both these guys were digging reporters. They found appropriate dirt under the manicured fingernails of tech executives. They built enormous networks of contacts who were willing to leak confidential information on:
- Deals being discussed but not yet finished.
- Execs in trouble about to lose high profile jobs
- Products under development that were out-performing or under-performing.
- Smarmy financial dealings.
- What startup was about to run out of money or have the investors pull the plug
The gossip column was hard news Not every rumor actually panned out, but enough did to give the old Business Journal a great deal of credibility. You just had to read it to know what was going on. It was nice to get access to information that powerful people would rather withhold from you.
I don't get this sort of stuff from any blog, although one positions itself that way. I'm really not interested in what executive is dating an employee or smarmy comments about people. I want information that is either useful or interesting.
Currently I cannot get that anywhere. I hope someone somewhere improves and existing blog or starts one that provides it. Am I thinking about Valleywag? I wouldn't dare say that. I made similar comments on a podcast over a year ago, and Nick Douglas responded to what I thought was constructive criticism my taking multiple personal chea shots at me over the following year.
