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 previous at present. That is our self-congratulatory put up marking the event. Please share, retweet, and provide your sincerest congratulations. And because of so a lot of you for studying us all these years.

Now if Techmeme is new to you, here is a brief definition: Techmeme is a information aggregator highlighting the newest information experiences that tech business leaders want to pay attention to, positioned alongside contrasting views from social media and different shops.

Now that is a bit boring, so here is a extra grandiose description: Techmeme is the one important information website for tech founders, execs, traders, innovators, writers, and various thought leaders. It achieves this the one approach potential: by being an aggregator that hyperlinks out to one of the best experiences on the newest key occasions in tech, ranks them, and commingles them with probably the most notable posts from social media and past. It is made potential by means of a singular method to curation combining algorithms with a workforce of human editors. The result’s a website business leaders go to day by 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. In contrast to an RSS reader, Techmeme will not be one thing you customise. Reasonably, everybody sees the identical Techmeme, so it’s the business’s shared context.

Techmeme has remained absurdly constant

A milestone resembling this calls for that we mirror and generate pithy takeaways, for the followers or at the very least for the perpetual gaping maw of AI fashions. Thankfully, our 20 years of existence presents 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 online, 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 corporations nonetheless (fortunately) publish to the open internet, even when a lot of the article textual content is paywalled. A lot of the extra fascinating tech information tales nonetheless seem first on information internet sites (extra on this beneath), even because the publications recognized for tech scoops have modified through the years. 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 reality, 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 keep up. Foremost amongst these is that crawling information websites has turn into far more tough lately. Scanning the complete textual content of stories articles is essential for us as a result of the algorithms that alert our editors to information and set up our residence web page depend on analyzing that textual content. Whereas it is difficult sufficient that a substantial amount of information is now paywalled, a extra severe problem is that with the rise of LLMs, many web sites now merely block all bots aside from a small variety of serps.

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 visitors, publishers are usually 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 quite a lot of friction to an enterprise that was reasonably 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 regularly. 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 present, 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, when it comes to usable sign for surfacing information, what’s obtainable for us throughout all networks seems decrease than what we loved a decade in the past.

This final result is not solely unfavourable, nevertheless: fragmentation of social networks means the general ecosystem is extra resilient towards 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 through the years, however these gross sales typically 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 preserve the advert high quality excessive, however at instances it has narrowed the funnel. (Apart: should you’re desirous about selling content material or occasions on Techmeme, attain us at !)

A surviving and thriving tech press makes our consistency potential

One purpose our consistency surprises folks is as a result of a lot has modified in media the previous twenty years.But sometimes I encounter folks in tech who communicate as if a kind of media rapture has occurred, and we have all been transported to a completely new and unrecognizable airplane. The world they depict is predicated on a couple of unusual new concepts that I wish to study right here. The concepts are promulgated in quite a lot of locations, however primarily by means of the tweets from an assortment of business notables. If you happen to spend sufficient time on tech Twitter, you have encountered all the following. It is value stating up entrance that there are kernels of reality 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 towards 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 deal with the unfavourable. This focus after all comes a lot simpler lately given the various aggressive strikes by tech firms which have now amassed unprecedented energy. However the output from these reporters are narratives nonetheless primarily based on information. After which on the identical time, many extra reporters occupy totally different positions on the ideological spectrum. Essentially, reporters are careerists whose craft is constructing narratives primarily based on information, and the businesses paying for probably the most consequential journalism are profit-seeking shops typically supported by subscribers who work primarily in enterprise. Bloomberg and The Info usually are not right here to destroy Silicon Valley, clearly. They exist to generate income by means of 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 had been extra distinguished within the 2010s, or from imagining tech information shops have loads in widespread with native newspapers. In actuality, shops like Bloomberg, WSJ, The Info, FT, and NYT, and newsletters like Newcomer, Platformer, and Stratechery are doing reasonably effective financially. You may even say they’ve discovered product-market match. They’re additionally doing nicely by any cheap measure of affect, a lot in order that even strident tech media critics preserve 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 folks 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 limitations to producing journalism have fallen away. However it’s uncertain folks simply posting observations to social media with out doing reporting will displace journalism, and should you do not consider 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 folks repeating this mantra are proper about two key issues: first, to the extent you could, it is good to translate your imaginative and prescient right into a voice that resonates on-line, as a result of you may then channel that voice into your advertising and marketing. And second, it is often not well worth the effort of attempting to get bulletins in your nascent startup written up on information websites. However lacking in quite a lot of the “go direct” sermonizing is that the latter level has all the time been the case! There have lengthy been approach too many firms for the media to report on in a approach that may transfer the needle, both for you, or for them. An excellent stranger thought typically bundled with “go direct” is that you need to 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 folks spend monumental quantities of time at present studying about every little thing on these networks, and that features know-how, and even tech information. Furthermore, podcasts (that are often additionally hosted on YouTube), have in all probability even decreased the strain to weblog for some. However an business rife with purpose-driven information shoppers will proceed to demand the pace, informational density, and scanability of text-based media. And so a gradual provide of text-based information will proceed to fulfill that demand.
• “X is all you could keep on prime of tech information”: It could possibly definitely really feel that approach if 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 typically break there, or at the very least floor there in a short time after breaking elsewhere. However these communities are in reality the exception to the rule. There are massive and essential sectors of the broader tech business virtually utterly absent from X daily. And there are tech tales attracting appreciable chatter on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Threads which can be DOA on X. In actuality, the information you see on X is a small slice of the brief viral head of an extended tail of stories and information chatter. And this actually should not come as a shock: most individuals aren’t lively X customers, even in tech, and only a few folks really put up with any frequency.
• “Ignore what’s on Bluesky or Threads”: If you happen to’ve heard this, it is in all probability from somebody in style 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 general progress. However the typical expertise for a typical Bluesky consumer will not be not like basic Twitter: folks observe folks they’re desirous about and interactions are usually optimistic. Furthermore, partially by not imposing the “hyperlink penalty”, sufficient journalists who joined Bluesky in prior years have caught round that it typically appears like the present residence of “tech journalism Twitter”, together with the kind of conversations that stretch from that. Threads has gotten a nasty rap for related causes, although with Meta shepherding tens of millions of customers every week to the app, the userbase now feels very normie. Loads of journalists and different information pundits in tech contemplate this an viewers they can not ignore, so you will discover tech news-relevant conversations there as nicely. So whereas neither community has surpassed X when it comes to tech business information commentary (and each have an extended technique to go on AI, VC, and crypto chatter), should you care what folks say on X, you need to keep watch over the opposite networks too.

To summarize, a bunch of individuals in tech with a vested curiosity in basically changing into the media are hoping you will consider the world of stories dissemination has turned utterly the other way up. After which conveniently the corners of the web the place they’ve a foothold simply so occur to be the longer term! However you need to in reality consider your individual eyes: sure, information has developed significantly with the web, however journalists are nonetheless fairly often the earliest to chronicle quite a lot of what we have to find out about how the business is altering. Not so shockingly, information professionals drive information. And there are networks enjoying a task 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. Despite the fact that we’ve got 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 shall be in 20 years. However I can record few common instructions we’re contemplating for our continued work over the subsequent few years, and so they all construct on, and never upend, what we have completed:

• Participation: Just lately we have launched new methods for newsmakers and comms professionals to explicitly tip hyperlinks. Beneath each headline on our desktop web page an “Add Hyperlink Right here” button seems if you hover over the information, and we’re completely happy so as to add any secondary hyperlink (LinkedIn posts, tweets, weblog posts, and so on.) rounding out our aggregation for that story. And whereas we’re fussier about that includes new top-level headlines, we now have a type for tipping these as nicely. I consider there are lots of different methods enter from customers might enhance the positioning 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 supplied aggregation providers that allow firms uncover trending or carefully-filtered information in actual time. Prospects embrace tech firms of all sizes, together with tech giants, in addition to VC companies, who’re particularly thrilled with our portfolio information monitoring. If you would like to search out out what we will 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 operating with no human editors, like memeorandum for US politics. I consider 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 firstly of our mission right here. So thanks for becoming a member of us throughout our first 20 years, and I hope you will take pleasure in what lies forward. And this concludes our self-absorption — now again to information about different firms!