SAY Media Rebrands ReadWriteWeb As “ReadWrite”, Redesigns, Hires Dan “Fake Steve Jobs” Lyons As Editor In Chief

I am a big fan of ReadWriteWeb. I think they have some of the best tech analysis you can find. SAY Media agreed and acquired it, and the property has undergone some serious changes. Gone is founder Richard MacManus, but coming in is a new Editor in Chief, Dan Lyons. You know him best as “Fake Steve Jobs.

Along with a new name for the site, ReadWrite, Lyons told last week that he wants to bring a new attitude to the site, which he says has “millions of readers”, however online data suggests otherwise. The tech blog game is getting serious once again, and it’s going to take a massive shift to shake it up. Lyons hopes he can instigate this shift at RW. TechCrunch’s Drew Olanoff had a word with Dan Lyons and this is what he had to say:

TechCrunch: Why ReadWrite, Dan? It’s no Forbes.

Dan Lyons: I really want to do something that’s fun. I’ve been sitting in mainstream media watching you guys have all the fun, and seriously, I’m jealous and I’m looking to get into something like this and thought “wow, it’s a great site, it has millions of readers (not really) and an amazing legacy.

It’s a small team of good writers and these guys are great. I feel blessed.

TechCrunch: You’re based in Boston, how does that help or hurt your job of covering Silicon Valley?

Dan Lyons: I really am planning to commute to San Francisco every week and maybe I’ll move there. At least I can be there some of the time. I do think being outside of the bubble, theres some advantage to be had, you can have a skeptical eye. I had a long talk with my wife about the new travel and being out and about. Just this week I was there, and it will continue.

TechCrunch: What do you want to change about RW? What do you want to keep the same?

Dan Lyons: I think the things they’ve always had is they have a smart, thoughtful site, I don’t want to change that at all, but build on top of that. Based on my own past, I’d like to have more personality, more passion, more energy and irreverence. Not Fake Steve, though. People can write from the heart. I”m just turning the dial, not making a radical change. If we start having fun, it comes through in what we’re writing. Readers will become more engaged. I want a site where readers are engaged. The best thing about Fake Steve were a) Oh my god the readers can talk to us and say mean things b) oh my god the readers want to be a part of the show, fight in comments, that was the most profound thing for me c) it wasn’t a publication, a conversation.

We have a lot of enterprise and IT coverage, we want to keep that, but I’m really into mobile and we’ll make that a big part of coverage.
———

As far as the rebrand, I’m told that everything is about engagement and discussion, with a clear focus on mobile reading, a trend that many sites are following these days. Does the team have what it takes to execute? Time will tell.

Here’s a gander at what to expect from the new ReadWrite:

position=left

Via: TechCrunch

Prateek Panda

Prateek is the Founder of TheTechPanda. He's passionate about technology startups and entrepreneurship and enjoys speaking to new founders every day. Prateek has also been consistently regarded as one of the top marketing experts in the region.

Recent Posts

The role of AI in redefining the future of corporate gifting

Business gifting has been around for a long time as a gesture of appreciation, goodwill,…

6 hours ago

DeepSource’s new autonomous AI agents promise to scan, fix code security vulnerabilities

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to progress exponentially, the future of industries like software engineering…

3 days ago

Retail’s Return Rate Crisis: The Urgent Need for Proactive Solutions

The average return rate in eCommerce is estimated at 17.6% for 2024. Nearly 1 in 5 products…

4 days ago

AI Launches: Cybersecurity, AI Agents, product specs, business operating system, automobile, consumer & MSME lending, cloud, data streaming

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent launches in the superfast field of Artificial…

5 days ago

As India’s tech sector on track to surpass $300 billion, CEO of Ness shares insights into AI’s important role 

The tech sector in India has been going from strength to strength in recent years.…

5 days ago

Unknown & uncontrolled machine identities within organizations leading to emergence of new identity security challenges

Experts are saying that organizations are inadvertently creating a new identity-centric attack surface through growing…

5 days ago