Comments on: Sorting Through the MothersClick Mess

By: MothersClick acquired « Talking tech on Family 2.0 (a niche of Web 2.0)

MothersClick acquired « Talking tech on Family 2.0 (a niche of Web 2.0) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:18:26 +0000

[...] side story is the MothersClick/TechCrunch mess (see here, here, and here) way back in [...]

By: Unit Structures – Blogs and the Web 2.0 Bubble

Unit Structures – Blogs and the Web 2.0 Bubble — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:34:42 +0000

[...] face. To get that audience with a VC, one needs the stamp of approval from the A-list. But can we trust the A-list? Do we really expect Michael Arrington to understand the mindset of an 18 year old college student? [...]

By: PR Squared

PR Squared — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:39:18 +0000

Errors in the Echo Chamber…

We have a client who was obsessed with getting their new 2.0-style company featured in TechCrunch. We approached it the right way, through the right channels, with respect for the people and processes at Arrington’s gig. We tried. We failed…….

By: Bundlo | Blog | Blog Archive | Social networking not working here.

Thu, 17 May 2007 15:10:18 +0000

[...] MothersClick I saved the best for last. These guys understand the importance of content but lets design be the copilot. The company took a real hit when an employee made a very bad decision with some public comments, but that doesn’t mean the site isn’t awesome—because it is. The design and functionality is top-shelf and the user base is growing every day. In my opinion, this is the site to get active on if you’re looking to jump into parent-focused social networking. [...]

By: SmugBlog: Don MacAskill » Blog Archive » Amazon S3: Show me the money

SmugBlog: Don MacAskill » Blog Archive » Amazon S3: Show me the money — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:39:14 +0000

[...] I still have some more Web 2.0 Summit stuff to write up if I get a few minutes today, but let me talk about Amazon’s S3 for a minute. At the conference, I was chatting with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch fame (who perfectly handled a blogosphere mini-explosion last week, I thought) and we got to talking about S3. He was impressed with how we were using it, but joked that our $500K saved number sounded like “complete bullsh*t”. I laughed along with him and assured him it was true, but on the way home I got to thinking that it IS a really big number to throw out there without details. [...]

By: patrica

patrica — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 23:48:38 +0000

^ i agree. it would be foolish to make lists of the companies he doesn’t cover – why would TC owe anybody this? he’s covering what’s of interest to his readers. as a reader, i’m not interested in there being a list or anything along that line. that taken to any major media outlet as an idea would never fly. nobody in business or here is entitled to anything really.

mike doesn’t owe anything to anybody – i think people want exposure here, but with any media or blog of any authority, you have to be a fit, you have to have a story, etc. – beyond simply existing. i would not come here if it covered topics any other way.

By: Justin Dossey

Justin Dossey — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 21:16:11 +0000

How about opening it up to the community? As mentioned above, you could post a list of sites that haven’t been covered. Instead of adding them yourself, though, have those wanting coverage for their sites add themselves to the list. Then, people can vote to communicate who they would like to see covered.

By: Anne 2.0 » Blog Archive » Blogger Relations: Person to Person not PR to A-Lister

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 19:50:19 +0000

[...] I’ve been following the TechCrunch/Mother’s Click story with fascinated horror. It seems to encapsulate all that is wrong with blogger relations today. Tara nailed it: “for Mother’s Click…wtf are they thinking? Why even target Mike and TC? Huh? The majority of your audience isn’t even there – you want to go to BlogHer and Dooce and individually talk to all of the mommy bloggers you can about giving it a try.” [...]

By: B.L. Ochman's weblog - Internet and corporate blogging strategy, and online marketing trends, with news and commentary

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:40:04 +0000

Arrington and The Pitch From Hell…

Michael Arrington is a successful entrepreneur, investor and a powerful blogger. His Tech Crunch and Crunch Notes blogs cover startups in great detail, so PR people for startups hit him up all the time. After their client, Mothersclick, dissed Arringto…

By: patricia

patricia — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:17:09 +0000

A quick Google news search didn’t reveal any sort of funding announcement by Mothersclick. I saw the launch release and didn’t see anything related to how it was funded at all. I could be wrong but TechCrunch is pretty news driven, for one, with a VC slant on top of that. Of course, not all articles focus on somebody raising capital but a good chunk do. I’m not surprised, then, to see emails from their PR firm going unnoticed by TechCrunch staff. What would you have to offer a relatively VC-focused blog in terms of news if you aren’t announcing anything related to funding? Particilarly as a small player. If TechCrunch covered every social networking site that launched, nobody would come here. A quick google news search provides that.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen a vendor pressure a PR firm without realizing it’s their fault for not being a fit for a specific media outlet or story. They outsource PR because they aren’t or can’t be media savvy, I know – but there’s more to landing in the news than simply hiring somebody to hack the press for you.

I’m kind of shocked to see a firm take the stance of “hey, we told ‘em not to do it” but bravo in my opinion. They might lose a client but for Mothersclick it was probably a very valuable lesson learned.

It’s a little silly that it caused this much of an uproar.