Jemima Kiss from The Guardian reports that Jason Calacanis is starting a new tech news site called Launch.
Kiss writes, “TechCrunch is arguably too dominant in the tech startup space, entrepreneurs will admit in private; not the fault of TechCrunch but of its rivals. The direction of tech coverage over the past few years has been to compete for faster, harder news – which is fine if a site breaks a story accurately, but not fine if an echo chamber of blogs all rewrite the same thing without adding any useful analysis or context.
“Arrington recently explained his points system for breaking news — fine, if that news is balanced by publishing longer, in-depth, analytical pieces that explore trends and can help set a different agenda, rather than purely reactive reporting. So is that the plan for Launch?
“Calacanis says the thing he enjoys the most is writing, and that’s where he’s putting that angry energy. The common theme in Calacanis’s startups has always been editorial, from Silicon Alley Reporter to Weblogs Inc and Mahalo. He’s picked up on the state of the tech blogging scene which, he says, is in a race to the bottom and is dragging mainstream media down with it.”
Read more here.