To many in the industry, Techmeme is hands down the best aggregator of technology news. So it makes sense that they’d try to take their combination of algorithms and editors to other verticals. But they’ve tried in the past, and it hasn’t worked. But that doesn’t mean they’re giving up.
Today, the people behind Techmeme are rolling out Mediagazer, a new site focused on aggregating and serving up all the best media news from around the web. The timing seems perfect given the level of interest surrounding the slow but interesting death of print media. And the interest around exciting new devices like the iPad, which may or may not reinvigorate the industry.
But why chose to focus on media?
“Media news has several things going for it: lots of new coverage every day, lots of interlinking, a variety of subtopics (video, blogs, journalism, newspapers, etc.) and (we hope) a potential audience with interest in several of those subtopics,” Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera tells us.
Rivera has tried in the past to roll the Techmeme idea to other verticals such as celebrity news (WeSmirch), political news (Memeorandum), and even baseball news (Ballbug). All those sites still exist, but none have gotten the level of interest that Techmeme has.
So why will this be different? Aside from the interest in media, this is the first site Rivera has rolled out since switching over to using human editor curation. And actually, Mediagazer will be launched under the control of Megan McCarthy, the first human editor Rivera hired in late 2008. Rivera has since made other hires to round out a full staff that can work around the clock for Techmeme.
Says McCarthy, “Media is tumultuous. Some areas are growing, some shrinking, and there’s no clear path of where things are going. There’s talk about the future of journalism, consolidation of media ownership, bloggers, Twitter, etc. It affects daily life (look at how the Oscars were blacked out in New York City and how many people were touched by that). This is an industry that is filled with such disruption — you need to have a way to clearly view the big picture. Mediagazer does that.“
And a bit more about how it actually works from Mediagazer’s about area:
We gather all the important stories about media and present them to you in a timely, thorough, and organized manner. Our story selection method uses the power of our freakishly smart algorithm combined with direct editorial input from knowledgeable human editors.
We collect every relevant take on an issue and package them together in a comprehensive group of links. That way, you not only get the lead opinion on an issue, but you can easily see all the supporting, opposing, smart, controversial, notable, and previously unseen viewpoints. You get the big picture.
The techmeme team should take on Gaming news. I think there is a huge potential market to aggregate gaming news..
Techmeme is coming up in the technology game. Have alot of respect for them :)
Techmeme is a great site. I just wish Rivera would bring their site design out of the 90′s.
I posted this on the Mediaglazer announcement as well, but wondering how they determine if an article is “media” related? Is it based on the source, the actual content of the article, or both?
Given that “media news” can occur anywhere, it seems like quite a challenge. But great initiative nonetheless.
Will test it. 2 dozens +1 more for the day. Who cares. Missing something is hell ;)
Techmeme is awesome.
Gabe–have someone make MediaGazer beautiful. Techmeme’s spartan look & feel works really well for tech but I think you’d get a bunch of mileage out of a better design for Media Gazer!
What will I cover the floor of my garage with when print dies?
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/how_will_the_end_of_print
Does TC actually test any of the sites it writes about?
It took me five minutes trying to get news about Larry Page on some of the mediagazer links, and at mediagazer, and nothing appeared for larry page. Further searches in links associated to mediagazer found the same stories about Page, one in particular about Adult Supervision.
Larry Page is in the top few technologists and business thinkers in the last ten years, and has 500 entries in Google news.
A lot of these sites just circulate the same news round and round, with little original content. Where is the business model? Or it is one more advertising based business model?
One day these VC fund managers, with their billions, will understand that business requires a direct relationship between customers and services and that means it has to be unique, and specific.
The techmeme team should take on Gaming news. I think there is a huge potential market to aggregate gaming news..