Is Something Lacking in the DC Tech Scene — or the Coverage?

A recent story in the Post has spurred a lot of online conversation about the tech scene in DC – story here

That story was criticized in Nick O’Neill’s Social Times blog, in a very good post located here. 

Mitch Arnowitz, who has kept alive the Ad-Marketing listserv of the old Morino Institute, sent these links to that group. And a very interesting person responded – Shannon Henry, who used to cover tech in the tech boom days and afterwards at the Post. Even though she’s long gone and now in Denver, who better to comment on the Post’s take on technology, and business coverage in general? Here’s her take — what do you think?

Hi Mitch and all,
  I covered Washington’s Internet and tech culture from 1995 to 2005 (from
1998 to 2005 for The Washington Post). I remember saying to my editors I thought
of tech as one of Washington’s more fascinating suburbs, but one that would
have national and international importance. That’s certainly become true.
  As for positive press, let me suggest you look at it in a different way. What
you really want is press that is paying attention. Only positive press is a
sugar pill. It’s dangerous in that it isn’t real. If you want to be a
technology powerhouse, you have to be real. A newspaper that is paying attention will
cover the brilliance of the new start-up  culture, but it will also report on
the companies that fail. Ideally, the region will become stronger through true
coverage and understanding of the good and the bad.
  So the question is, is the press paying attention? Are reporters just
reacting to earnings reports and merger news, or are they delving deeper? Are they out
there talking to the techies and the CEOs in the trenches? Are non-Business
reporters focusing on how tech is affecting the fabric of Washington life? You
all know the answer better than I do. (I’m deep into another subject, food ,
and another city, Denver).
  That census number mentioned, where DC is second to the Valley in terms of
tech population, shows the region’s gone beyond needing to prove it’s
amounted to something.
  If the traditional media is not paying attention and misses the story (in
this case a very big story) it is clear the online press, including the bloggers
and list serve owners, will have the power to drive the conversation and be a
stronger force in covering the news in a faster and more interactive way.
  I hope this debate continues, it’s worth bantering about.
  Shannon Henry

2/21 Tech Currents Event

Thursday Businesswire hosted an event at the Marriott Tysons Corner where local tech media talked about the kind of things they want to hear about, how to pitch them, etc. IMO the biggest benefit of these events is interacting with these folks face-to-face as opposed to the panel discussion. But each person shared interesting perspectives:

Melissa Frederick, Washington Examimer — Strategic got to know her when she was with Space News. Writing now for a general audience, she’s looking for stories with impact on everyday lives, “quirky” stuff, and if you can connect a trend to sister markets in Baltimore or San Francisco all the better. These are 350 word stories, so be clear and have your speakers available.

Roger Hughlett, Washington Business Journal — I got to know Roger when he was tech reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal, Roger wrote some great early stories about Advertising.com even before that was the company name. Now he’s assistant managing editor for Wash Journal, and encouraged us to make sure our trends are real,  never burn reporters, remember he wants to report on people inside companies, and don’t pitch him directly, pitch his new tech reporter Darlene Darcy. Roger easily won the “best analogy” contest of the discussion  – explaining how a series of business transactions can eventually become a feature story in the Journal, he compared it to individual strings eventually combining to form a rope of a story.

Paul Sherman, Potomac Tech Wire — reminded everyone PTW wants to report on the business of tech, not tech itself. Exec appointments are contracts with a $$ figure is what PTW wants. He reminded the audience to put contract size in context – a $2M deal that makes or breaks a startup is more newsworthy than a $20M deal from a systems integrator. Friday is the easiest day to get mentioned, they are often light on material and according to Paul many subscribers read the Friday email on Monday AM.

Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post — Rob is a consumer tech reporter, so don’t pitch him business or enterprise stories. But he does have a need for content, writing a weekly column, reviews and analysis, a Q&A on Sunday and a blog. So in our case, if we have a plausible b2b2c story, give it a try. Rob also gave some useful insight into beats shifting at the Post — Kim Hart is moving away from telecom, and Cecelia Kang is taking that beat.