How Vanity Fair’s tech coverage will differ

Nick Bilton, the tech writer who left the New York Times for Vanity Fair, was interviewed by Politico Media about his new job.

Here is an excerpt:

POLITICO: Vanity Fair plans to launch a new vertical focused on technology and business later this year. How will you be involved with that, and how many people will work on it?

BILTON: I can neither confirm (yes this is true, and it’s going to be sensational), nor deny (the purple bird flies north at midnight, look for its pink hat). As for my involvement in the new venture, if needed, I’ll be standing on the sidewalk of One World Trade Center with pompoms yelling, “Can I get a V. Can I get an A. Can I…” You get the point.

POLITICO: There is so much coverage of the tech industry out there. How will Vanity Fair distinguish its coverage from competitors like Techcrunch and Recode?

BILTON: I think tech coverage in Silicon Valley is completely broken. It’s all based on access, and as a result, it’s half-press releases and half-esoteric and pedantic news that only (select) people in Silicon Valley care about. (Who’s been hired; how this new app is just wonderful; how this C.E.O. sat for a 45-second interview so we put him on the cover.) I think the role of the press is to tell it how it is. Oh, and if I ever write about APIs or SDKs or how wonderful the latest product manager at Twitter is, I can only hope that Graydon sends me off to rehab.

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