Abandoning The Inquirer

Peter G. 9 Jun, 2009 at 11:56am ET Article published in Tech

sinkingship The Inquirer, everyone’s favorite tech news/blog site for juicy rumors, news, and half-truths; seems to be in rough waters these days, and the staff is abandoning ship. We first saw signs of turmoil when Charlie Demerjian announced he was starting a new site right before Computex on May 31. Chuck D is no stranger to internet drama and the rage of fanboys so we figured the wrath of Jen-Hsun Huang and the Green Army finally took its toll.

But then Sylvie Barak went quiet.

Sylvie is never quiet. And she was at Computex too, the annual tech show that should have been easy pickings for her snarky, brutal journalistic proddings. It should have been like shooting fish in a barrel, but Computex went by quietly on The Inquirer’s main page and through the Twitter feeds of its staff.

The bomb dropped.

No more snarky news. No more cheap shots at fanboys, bloggers, and terrible corporate PR spinsters. And definitely no more pro tips on inside news, rumours and products. TheINQ instead wants to regurgitate press releases? Say it ain’t so!

Word travels fast on the street and faster on the information superhighway. The staff isn’t happy. Today, Paul Hales left his post and we suspect it won’t be long until TheINQ is a floating ghost ship in the waters it once pillaged. Someone call the Coast Guard.

Comments

9 Jun 2009 ~ 12:01pm Thrax IncisiveMedia has ruined a fine, fine site. RIP Inq and best of luck to Sylvie, Paul, Charlie and the rest.
9 Jun 2009 ~ 12:05pm mas0n
9 Jun 2009 ~ 12:14pm Cliff_Forster Sylvie should be fine. She has a unique style and wit that should be valued. She has incited the rage of my inner fanboy on at least a few occasions.

I don't always agree with her point of view, but she is nothing if not candid about her opinions, and she has been gracious enough to share her thoughts with me on a few occasions. I wish her the best.
9 Jun 2009 ~ 1:10pm UPSLynx That's unfortunate, I liked INQ.

Though, I guess we don't have to worry about Icrontic being called a 'tech blog' again any time soon
9 Jun 2009 ~ 7:44pm fatcat Met Charlie in Vegas. Best of luck to him and the others.
11 Jun 2009 ~ 10:55pm Charlie Demerjian I just set up shop on my own when the impending crash was unavoidable. I am at www.semiaccurate.com, same sh*t, different banner.

-Charlie
11 Jun 2009 ~ 10:59pm primesuspect Best of luck to you Charlie Glad to see things are business as usual.
11 Jun 2009 ~ 11:45pm Thrax Charlie, you need to outfit your site with a little RSS love.

Thanks for stopping by Icrontic, and best of luck to you, sir!
12 Jun 2009 ~ 4:02pm Charlie Demerjian There is an RSS feed, there just isn't a page for it. We got the site up in 5 days with no budget, and are currently chasing bigger bugs. That said, on a browser, RSS should how up, it does in FF, I don't run windows any more to check with IE.

-Charlie
12 Jun 2009 ~ 4:13pm Thrax Ah, you're right. I never thought to look in the address bar; I'm so trained to press a link.

Cheers.
12 Jun 2009 ~ 10:50pm Leonardo

I just set up shop on my own when the impending crash was unavoidable. I am at www.semiaccurate.com, same sh*t, different banner.

-Charlie

It's an honor to have you post here. I was just preparing to drop a link to Semiaccurate when I saw your post.

I've been a fan for years, Charlie. Keep up the good work and awesome source base.