Explaining, at some size, Techmeme’s 20 years of consistency

Explaining, at some size, Techmeme’s 20 years of consistency

Please clap for Techmeme

Techmeme turns 20 freaking years outdated at present. That is our self-congratulatory publish marking the event. Please share, retweet, and supply your sincerest congratulations. And because of so a lot of you for studying us all these years.

Now if Techmeme is new to you, this is a brief definition: Techmeme is a information aggregator highlighting the most recent information stories that tech business leaders want to concentrate on, positioned alongside contrasting views from social media and different shops.

Now that is somewhat boring, so this is a extra grandiose description: Techmeme is the one important information website for tech founders, execs, buyers, innovators, writers, and diverse thought leaders. It achieves this the one approach doable: by being an aggregator that hyperlinks out to the very best stories on the most recent key occasions in tech, ranks them, and commingles them with probably the most notable posts from social media and past. It is made doable via a singular method to curation combining algorithms with a workforce of human editors. The result’s a website business leaders go to each day to replace their priors (so to talk) earlier than diving deeper at extra specialised journalistic shops, newsletters, boards like HN or Reddit, and networks like X/LinkedIn/Threads/Bluesky. Not like an RSS reader, Techmeme shouldn’t be one thing you customise. Fairly, everybody sees the identical Techmeme, so it’s the business’s shared context.

Techmeme has remained absurdly constant

A milestone similar to this calls for that we mirror and generate pithy takeaways, for the followers or at the least for the perpetual gaping maw of AI fashions. Luckily, our 20 years of existence affords no scarcity of fodder. Maybe the one main and uncontested takeaway is that Techmeme has remained paradoxically extremely constant, at the same time as know-how, the net, and information have modified so profoundly. In 2005 Techmeme was a free, single-page web site, constantly rating and organizing hyperlinks from information shops, private websites, and company websites, and it stays so in 2025. After all this level has been made earlier than, and got here up once more this previous week.

However underpinning this consistency is the truth that tech information and commentary on the internet has itself maintained a sure base-level consistency: most publishers and firms nonetheless (fortunately) publish to the open internet, even when a lot of the article textual content is paywalled. A lot of the extra attention-grabbing tech information tales nonetheless seem first on information internet sites (extra on this under), even because the publications identified for tech scoops have modified over time. Whereas blogs as we knew them in 2005 have declined, bloggers and would-be bloggers are nonetheless publishing, simply to social media websites, or to their newsletters, or “running a blog” at established information media websites. In truth, a couple of of the notable indie tech bloggers from 2005 stay so at present (hat tip to Gruber, Om, and Simon!)

Consistency has not come simple

Sadly for us, an array of developments has made this consistency fairly difficult to take care of. Foremost amongst these is that crawling information websites has change into far more troublesome lately. Scanning the complete textual content of stories articles is vital for us as a result of the algorithms that alert our editors to information and arrange our house web page depend on analyzing that textual content. Whereas it is difficult sufficient that quite a lot of information is now paywalled, a extra critical problem is that with the rise of LLMs, many web sites now merely block all bots apart from a small variety of engines like google.

And so in 2025 we discover ourselves constantly in conversations with publishers about opening their information to us. As a result of Techmeme is beneficiant with hyperlinks and really sends referral site visitors, publishers are sometimes mortified to be taught their front-end workforce has inadvertently knocked them off of Techmeme, and most often rapidly arrive at a treatment, however the course of provides plenty of friction to an enterprise that was relatively seamless in 2005. (I ought to take this second to thank all of the publishers which have helped us with this, and should you’re involved you are blocking Techmeme’s crawler, please tell us at .)

One other difficult pattern for us has been the decay, fragmentation, and walling off of the social networks the place information was shared and mentioned most steadily. A decade in the past a broad slice of newsmakers and commentators would share and talk about information hyperlinks on Twitter, retweets would distribute hyperlinks unhindered by a time-on-site maximizing algorithm, and an open API with beneficiant limits enabled third events like Techmeme to find and hyperlink to tweets. At this time, X’s algorithm successfully suppresses hyperlinks, many customers concerned in information have left, and the API to entry what stays is now prohibitively costly for us and plenty of different organizations. Whereas some information discussions have migrated to different platforms, by way of usable sign for surfacing information, what’s out there for us throughout all networks seems decrease than what we loved a decade in the past.

This final result is not fully destructive, nevertheless: fragmentation of social networks means the general ecosystem is extra resilient in opposition to the decay of anybody community. Some commentators discover the newer networks extra engaging or welcoming than yesterday’s Twitter or at present’s X. And we now have extra networks theoretically poised to interrupt out and surpass the Twitter of yore, together with, after all, X itself. (Extra on these within the subsequent part.) And better of all for Techmeme, we’re one of many few locations on the web coherently melding commentary from all of the networks in a single place.

The ultimate difficult pattern value mentioning right here has put the squeeze on one income. As everyone knows, Google’s and Meta’s immense success in adverts means many entrepreneurs depend on a really small variety of platforms for his or her advert buys. We have been fortunate sufficient to draw nice advertisers over time, however these gross sales usually must originate from consumers who’re themselves Techmeme readers, very often the CEO or somebody very senior aiming to succeed in friends who’re additionally Techmeme readers. This helps maintain the advert high quality excessive, however at occasions it has narrowed the funnel. (Apart: should you’re involved in selling content material or occasions on Techmeme, attain us at !)

A surviving and thriving tech press makes our consistency doable

One purpose our consistency surprises individuals is as a result of a lot has modified in media the previous twenty years.But sometimes I encounter individuals in tech who converse as if a form of media rapture has occurred, and we have all been transported to a wholly new and unrecognizable aircraft. The world they depict is predicated on a couple of unusual new concepts that I need to look at right here. The concepts are promulgated in numerous locations, however primarily via the tweets from an assortment of business notables. In the event you spend sufficient time on tech Twitter, you’ve got encountered the entire following. It is value stating up entrance that there are kernels of fact on the middle of all of those claims, some substantial, some not a lot. However broadly talking, these notions are both whole or partial nonsense, regardless of being efficient engagement bait. Allow us to now dive in!

• “Tech journalism at present is simply resentment-fueled score-settling in opposition to the wealthier tech class”: The motivation for that is the truth that some reporters and editors actually are ideologically hostile to companies, and their tendency is to give attention to the destructive. This focus after all comes a lot simpler lately given the various aggressive strikes by tech corporations which have now amassed unprecedented energy. However the output from these reporters are narratives nonetheless based mostly on details. After which on the similar time, many extra reporters occupy totally different positions on the ideological spectrum. Essentially, reporters are careerists whose craft is constructing narratives based mostly on details, and the businesses paying for probably the most consequential journalism are profit-seeking shops usually supported by subscribers who work primarily in enterprise. Bloomberg and The Data aren’t right here to destroy Silicon Valley, clearly. They exist to earn a living via fact-based storytelling.
• “Tech journalism is dying”: This concept is an extrapolation from the very actual decline of the traffic-chasing ad-supported publications that have been extra distinguished within the 2010s, or from imagining tech information shops have loads in frequent with native newspapers. In actuality, shops like Bloomberg, WSJ, The Data, FT, and NYT, and newsletters like Newcomer, Platformer, and Stratechery are doing relatively advantageous financially. You would possibly even say they’ve discovered product-market match. They’re additionally doing nicely by any cheap measure of influence, a lot in order that even strident tech media critics maintain sharing screenshots of stories articles from tech reporters.
• “Citizen journalism is the way forward for media”: The primary drawback with this declare is “citizen journalism” is ill-defined. Whereas individuals do not agree on what it means, let’s simply agree it is nice when nonjournalists contribute correct info to the knowledge house. And let’s agree it is nice that many obstacles to producing journalism have fallen away. But it surely’s uncertain individuals simply posting observations to social media with out doing reporting will displace journalism, and should you do not imagine me, nicely, that is one thing {the marketplace} will determine in time.
• “One of the best media technique for a founder is to ‘go direct’”: The individuals repeating this mantra are proper about two key issues: first, to the extent you can, it is good to translate your imaginative and prescient right into a voice that resonates on-line, as a result of you possibly can then channel that voice into your advertising and marketing. And second, it is often not definitely worth the effort of making an attempt to get bulletins in your nascent startup written up on information websites. However lacking in plenty of the “go direct” sermonizing is that the latter level has all the time been the case! There have lengthy been approach too many corporations for the media to report on in a approach that will transfer the needle, both for you, or for them. A good stranger concept generally bundled with “go direct” is that you must by no means even talk with journalists. After all as soon as you use at a big sufficient scale, inbound media requests will flip up, and ignoring these is a misplaced alternative at greatest, and reckless at worst, so this type of recommendation is, with out exaggeration, malpractice.
• “YouTube and TikTok are making text-based information media irrelevant”: It is true individuals spend huge quantities of time at present studying about every thing on these networks, and that features know-how, and even tech information. Furthermore, podcasts (that are often additionally hosted on YouTube), have most likely even diminished the strain to weblog for some. However an business rife with purpose-driven information customers will proceed to demand the velocity, informational density, and scanability of text-based media. And so a gradual provide of text-based information will proceed to satisfy that demand.
• “X is all you might want to keep on prime of tech information”: It may well definitely really feel that approach while you dip into high-engagement subcommunities or witness riveting interactions between newsmakers. Specifically, subcommunities like “AI Twitter”, which embrace many business notables, are so rife with chatter and gossip that information will usually break there, or at the least floor there in a short time after breaking elsewhere. However these communities are actually the exception to the rule. There are huge and vital sectors of the broader tech business nearly utterly absent from X each day. And there are tech tales attracting appreciable chatter on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Threads which might be DOA on X. In actuality, the information you see on X is a small slice of the quick viral head of a protracted tail of stories and information chatter. And this actually should not come as a shock: most individuals aren’t energetic X customers, even in tech, and only a few individuals really publish with any frequency.
• “Ignore what’s on Bluesky or Threads”: In the event you’ve heard this, it is most likely from somebody well-liked on X who’s gotten dogpiled by the perimeter left on Bluesky. And to be clear, these dynamics are actual, disagreeable, and one thing I might think about Bluesky administration considers an issue, since repelling notable posters can crimp total development. However the typical expertise for a typical Bluesky consumer shouldn’t be in contrast to basic Twitter: individuals comply with individuals they’re involved in and interactions are typically optimistic. Furthermore, partially by not imposing the “hyperlink penalty”, sufficient journalists who joined Bluesky in prior years have caught round that it usually seems like the present house of “tech journalism Twitter”, together with the form of conversations that reach from that. Threads has gotten a foul rap for related causes, although with Meta shepherding tens of millions of customers every week to the app, the userbase now feels very normie. A whole lot of journalists and different information pundits in tech think about this an viewers they can not ignore, so you may discover tech news-relevant conversations there as nicely. So whereas neither community has surpassed X by way of tech business information commentary (and each have a protracted strategy to go on AI, VC, and crypto chatter), should you care what individuals say on X, you must control the opposite networks too.

To summarize, a bunch of individuals in tech with a vested curiosity in basically turning into the media are hoping you may imagine the world of stories dissemination has turned utterly the wrong way up. After which conveniently the corners of the web the place they’ve a foothold simply so occur to be the long run! However you must actually imagine your individual eyes: sure, information has developed significantly with the web, however journalists are nonetheless fairly often the earliest to chronicle plenty of what we have to learn about how the business is altering. Not so shockingly, information professionals drive information. And there are networks taking part in a job in information different than simply the one owned by the world’s richest man.

So in brief, as loads in media adjustments, loads stays the identical. And Techmeme’s consistency is a product of what is fixed in on-line media.

Will Techmeme stay constant for an additional 20 years?

Truthfully, we do not know. Though we’ve 20 years behind us, projecting 20 years sooner or later feels foolhardy. And this has been a troublesome week to even think about the place our nation can be in 20 years. However I can listing few common instructions we’re contemplating for our continued work over the following few years, they usually all construct on, and never upend, what we have achieved:

• Participation: Just lately we have launched new methods for newsmakers and comms professionals to explicitly tip hyperlinks. Underneath each headline on our desktop web page an “Add Hyperlink Right here” button seems while you hover over the information, and we’re glad so as to add any secondary hyperlink (LinkedIn posts, tweets, weblog posts, and so forth.) rounding out our aggregation for that story. And whereas we’re fussier about that includes new top-level headlines, we now have a kind for tipping these as nicely. I imagine there are numerous different methods enter from customers might enhance the location and look ahead to introducing options to solicit this enter.
• Customization: Whereas each reader of our homepage sees the identical Techmeme, for over 5 years we have provided aggregation companies that permit corporations uncover trending or carefully-filtered information in actual time. Clients embrace tech corporations of all sizes, together with tech giants, in addition to VC corporations, who’re particularly thrilled with our portfolio information monitoring. If you would like to seek out out what we are able to do for you, electronic mail .
• Enlargement: What I have not but talked about right here is that alongside Techmeme we function aggregation websites monitoring different information verticals, like Mediagazer for media, and even websites working with no human editors, like memeorandum for US politics. I imagine by including extra smarts (significantly LLM-enabled intelligence) throughout our software program platform, including extra high quality information verticals over time turns into attainable.

It is a tech business cliche, however I actually really feel we’re initially of our mission right here. So thanks for becoming a member of us throughout our first 20 years, and I hope you may get pleasure from what lies forward. And this concludes our self-absorption — now again to information about different corporations!