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Techmeme turns 20 freaking years outdated as we speak. That is our self-congratulatory submit marking the event. Please share, retweet, and provide your sincerest congratulations. And because of so lots 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 most recent information stories that tech business leaders want to pay attention to, positioned alongside contrasting views from social media and different shops.

Now that is somewhat boring, so here is a extra grandiose description: Techmeme is the one important information website for tech founders, execs, buyers, innovators, writers, and various thought leaders. It achieves this the one manner doable: by being an aggregator that hyperlinks out to the perfect stories on the most recent key occasions in tech, ranks them, and commingles them with essentially the most notable posts from social media and past. It is made doable via a novel strategy 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 is just not one thing you customise. Somewhat, everybody sees the identical Techmeme, so it’s the business’s shared context.

Techmeme has remained absurdly constant

A milestone reminiscent of this calls for that we replicate and generate pithy takeaways, for the followers or not less than for the perpetual gaping maw of AI fashions. Happily, our 20 years of existence gives no scarcity of fodder. Maybe the one main and uncontested takeaway is that Techmeme has remained paradoxically extremely constant, whilst know-how, the net, and information have modified so profoundly. In 2005 Techmeme was a free, single-page web site, repeatedly 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 attention-grabbing tech information tales nonetheless seem first on information websites (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 actual fact, just a few of the notable indie tech bloggers from 2005 stay so as we speak (hat tip to Gruber, Om, and Simon!)

Consistency has not come straightforward

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 develop into way more tough in recent times. Scanning the complete textual content of reports articles is essential for us as a result of the algorithms that alert our editors to information and set up our house web page depend on analyzing that textual content. Whereas it is difficult sufficient that an excessive amount of information is now paywalled, a extra critical problem is that with the rise of LLMs, many web sites now merely block all bots aside from a small variety of engines like google.

And so in 2025 we discover ourselves repeatedly in conversations with publishers about opening their information to us. As a result of Techmeme is beneficiant with hyperlinks and truly sends referral site visitors, publishers are usually mortified to study their front-end workforce has inadvertently knocked them off of Techmeme, and normally rapidly arrive at a treatment, however the course of provides lots of friction to an enterprise that was slightly seamless in 2005. (I ought to take this second to thank all of the publishers which have helped us with this, and if you happen to’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. Right now, 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 lots of different organizations. Whereas some information discussions have migrated to different platforms, by way of usable sign for surfacing information, what’s accessible for us throughout all networks seems decrease than what we loved a decade in the past.

This consequence is not fully adverse, nevertheless: fragmentation of social networks means the general ecosystem is extra resilient in opposition to the decay of anyone community. Some commentators discover the newer networks extra engaging or welcoming than yesterday’s Twitter or as we speak’s X. And we now have extra networks theoretically poised to interrupt out and surpass the Twitter of yore, together with, in fact, 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 price 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 have to originate from consumers who’re themselves Techmeme readers, very often the CEO or somebody very senior aiming to achieve friends who’re additionally Techmeme readers. This helps preserve the advert high quality excessive, however at instances it has narrowed the funnel. (Apart: if you happen to’re taken with selling content material or occasions on Techmeme, attain us at !)

A surviving and thriving tech press makes our consistency doable

One cause our consistency surprises folks is as a result of a lot has modified in media the previous 20 years.But sometimes I encounter folks in tech who converse as if a kind of media rapture has occurred, and we have all been transported to a wholly new and unrecognizable airplane. The world they depict is predicated on just a few 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. If you happen to spend sufficient time on tech Twitter, you have encountered the entire following. It is price 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 complete or partial nonsense, regardless of being efficient engagement bait. Allow us to now dive in!

• “Tech journalism as we speak 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 adverse. This focus in fact comes a lot simpler in recent times 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 similar time, many extra reporters occupy totally different positions on the ideological spectrum. Basically, reporters are careerists whose craft is constructing narratives primarily based on information, and the businesses paying for essentially the most consequential journalism are profit-seeking shops typically supported by subscribers who work primarily in enterprise. Bloomberg and The Data are usually not right here to destroy Silicon Valley, clearly. They exist to become profitable 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 had been extra distinguished within the 2010s, or from imagining tech information shops have so much in widespread with native newspapers. In actuality, shops like Bloomberg, WSJ, The Data, FT, and NYT, and newsletters like Newcomer, Platformer, and Stratechery are doing slightly superb financially. You would possibly even say they’ve discovered product-market match. They’re additionally doing nicely by any cheap measure of impression, a lot in order that even strident tech media critics preserve sharing screenshots of reports articles from tech reporters.
• “Citizen journalism is the way forward for media”: The principle 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 data to the knowledge area. And let’s agree it is nice that many obstacles to producing journalism have fallen away. But it surely’s uncertain folks simply posting observations to social media with out doing reporting will displace journalism, and if you happen to do not imagine me, nicely, that is one thing {the marketplace} will resolve in time.
• “The perfect media technique for a founder is to ‘go direct’”: The folks repeating this mantra are proper about two key issues: first, to the extent which you could, 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 normally not well worth the effort of making an attempt to get bulletins on your nascent startup written up on information websites. However lacking in lots of the “go direct” sermonizing is that the latter level has at all times been the case! There have lengthy been manner too many firms for the media to report on in a manner that will transfer the needle, both for you, or for them. A good stranger thought generally bundled with “go direct” is that it’s best 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 sort 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 as we speak studying about every thing on these networks, and that features know-how, and even tech information. Furthermore, podcasts (that are normally additionally hosted on YouTube), have most likely 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 gentle provide of text-based information will proceed to fulfill that demand.
• “X is all it is advisable to keep on prime of tech information”: It could actually definitely really feel that manner whenever you dip into high-engagement subcommunities or witness riveting interactions between newsmakers. Specifically, subcommunities like “AI Twitter”, which embody many business notables, are so rife with chatter and gossip that information will typically break there, or not less than floor there in a short time after breaking elsewhere. However these communities are actually the exception to the rule. There are large and essential sectors of the broader tech business nearly utterly absent from X everyday. And there are tech tales attracting appreciable chatter on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Threads which are 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 reports 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 truly submit with any frequency.
• “Ignore what’s on Bluesky or Threads”: If you happen to’ve heard this, it is most likely from somebody fashionable 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 progress. However the typical expertise for a typical Bluesky consumer is just not not like traditional Twitter: folks observe folks they’re taken with 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 typically looks like the present house of “tech journalism Twitter”, together with the kind of conversations that stretch from that. Threads has gotten a foul rap for related causes, although with Meta shepherding thousands and thousands of customers every week to the app, the userbase now feels very normie. A whole lot of journalists and different information pundits in tech contemplate this an viewers they cannot ignore, so you will 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 an extended strategy to go on AI, VC, and crypto chatter), if you happen to care what folks say on X, it’s best 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 imagine the world of reports 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 it’s best to actually imagine your individual eyes: sure, information has advanced significantly with the web, however journalists are nonetheless fairly often the earliest to chronicle lots of what we have to find out about how the business is altering. Not so shockingly, information professionals drive information. And there are networks taking part in a task in information different than simply the one owned by the world’s richest man.

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

Will Techmeme stay constant for one more 20 years?

Truthfully, we do not know. Though we now have 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 listing few common instructions we’re contemplating for our continued work over the following few years, and so they all construct on, and never upend, what we have completed:

• Participation: 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 whenever 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 kind for tipping these as nicely. I imagine there are various different methods enter from customers might enhance the positioning and stay up for 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 permit firms uncover trending or carefully-filtered information in actual time. Prospects embody 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 seek out out what we are able to do for you, e mail .
• Growth: What I have never 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 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!