-
journalists in peril
TechCrunch Editor Survives Vicious Rwandan Baboon Attack
Traveling abroad is dangerous for the media. Take TechCrunch's Sarah Lacy for instance. She's in Rwanda, writing a book or something, when a baboon attacked her breakfast. Thankfully, she works for Michael Arrington, so she has experience handling deranged primates. More » -
twitterati
The Twitterati Listen to Blowhard Electronica
This is the media life on Twitter: Readers daring to call on the phone, bloggers taking each other out to lunch, and blowhard predictions made about blowhard predictions! Today's Twitterati: More » -
journalismism
Sarah Lacy Is the Interviewer Elon Musk Was Looking For
Uh oh! Silicon Valley journalist Sarah Lacy laughed when Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk called a New York Times writer a "douchebag." Now the Times is in a snit and she's calling the newspaper sexist! More » -
twitterati
The Twitterati Scrape Off a Blueprint Cleanse Stain
Feeling out of it? Then go read what media types like Amanda Congdon and Sarah Lacy are saying about themselves on Twitter. You'll feel better instantly! More » -
twitterati
The Twitterati Wear Shorts to a Cage Match
Things that the media's Twitter addicts are savoring: onion rings, Hulk Hogan, and weather warm enough for shorts. Michelle Malkin, Sarah Lacy, Xeni Jardin and others reveal their not-so-hidden desires: More » -
twitterati
The Twitterati Want a Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffin, Followed by the Blueprint Cleanse
After Facebook's redesign, when is Twitter's coming? We want a feature that filters for vapidity. We'd hate that, too, because we'd never see tweets like these from Jenny 8. Lee, Sarah Lacy, and Randi Zuckerberg: More » -
twitterati
The Twitterati Watch Bono Wave, Wearing a Snuggie
What, precisely, about Twitter leads people to admit to things like buying a Snuggie or mooching off a multinational media conglomerate? Here's what Caroline Waxler, Sarah Lacy, and others said in the 140-character confessional: More » -
twitterati
The Pursuit of Paranoia
Just because you use Twitter doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Starring Sarah Lacy, Elizabeth Spiers, and more! More » -
-
twitterati
Life Is Good for the Twitterati
The media live deeply ordinary lives. Okay, deeply ordinary lives in which their bosses buy them caviar. The Twitterati report in with a feast for the senses: More » -
synergy
Becoming A Brand: Pointless
One of the biggest brand-called-you practitioners is calling the whole notion into question. Tech pundit Sarah Lacy publishes in four or five media and wonders what the point is. More » -
self-referential
What If Sarah Lacy Had Run Valleywag?
Sarah Lacy, the Silicon Valley author, BusinessWeek reporter and notorious interviewer, worked a bit of grave-dancing into her blog "tribute" to Valleywag, the site gutted by Gawker Media Wednesday. Gawker Media chief Nick Denton was the "best" Valleywag editor, and his posts were "sexy, fun... and important." The site's current editor, Owen Thomas, has had far more time to dutifully torture Valley fixture Lacy and, what do you know, she writes that Valleywag "just stopped being a daily, must-read for" her under his tenure. Perhaps Lacy imagines she could have run the site better, had she taken Denton up on his offer to take the reins a couple of years ago, before Thomas came on the scene. More » -
sarah lacy
Valleywag woes won't stop SF journalist from talking about herself
"I always laugh when people talk about how 'self-promotional' I am," blogs vaguely-connected-to-BusinessWeek writer Sarah Lacy in a 902-word post, "given that for ten years of my career you never knew a thing about me other than my byline." Lacy says that Valleywag was more interesting when editor-owner Nick Denton wrote it. We think she's onto an interesting pattern: Sarah Lacy was more interesting when Nick Denton wrote about her, too. -
sarah lacy
The enemy within Yahoo
Sarah Lacy works at Yahoo. Sort of. As the anchor of Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker show, Lacy is a contractor, an employment status which already makes her a second-class citizen on the Yahoo campus. But Yahoo's ostracism of its Web-video star goes further. She's not listed in Yahoo's electronic directory, and her badge doesn't admit her anywhere on campus. Jerry Yang, Yahoo's nervous-nelly CEO, seems afraid that the longtime Valley reporter might stumble across his secret layoff plans. What his ban has really accomplished: Obstructing floral deliveries. -
we read twitter so you don't have to
Sarah Lacy not getting a charge out of anyone lately
Yahoo Tech Ticker anchor Sarah Lacy's BlackBerry has run out of power. And she wants the entire Internet to know about it! Sadly, no one at Yahoo headquarters has responded to her passive-aggressively Twittered request. See, here's the thing about Twitter. More » -
tech ticker
Sarah Lacy: No one cares about tech now
Some of Yahoo Tech Ticker's recent headlines have little to do with tech: "Senate Passes Bailout Bill: 74 to 25"; "Buffett Buys $3B of GE Preferred, Company Selling $12B of Common"; and "It's 'Absolute Nirvana' for Value Investors, Whitney Tilson Says." Tech Ticker talking head Sarah Lacy has posted an existential complaint. The title: "When Tech Reporters Become Irrelevant." When? We thought they always were. But we digress. Lacy writes that there's been one tech story this year mainstream enough for a Yahoo audience — the Microsoft-Yahoo non-merger — but that otherwise, "it's been a year of financial news." More » -
books
Sarah Lacy's "very ambitious project"
Yahoo TechTicker talking head and BusinessWeek Sarah Lacy is planning "a very ambitious project" for her next book, she told Ben Haber. Lacy's contract with Yahoo expires in November 2009 and she told Haber she might take a year off after that to write the new book. More » -
superficial
Microsoft looks for its own Sarah Lacy
If you can't hire a star, why not one of her best girlfriends? We hear Microsoft has poached BusinessWeek reporter Catherine Holahan for a new online-video project — MSN's answer to Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker stocks show, which features Sarah Lacy, Holahan's former colleague at BusinessWeek and a close friend. (The two were rarely apart when they attended the SXSW conference where Lacy infamously interviewed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.) Lacy's known for her va-va-voom Diane Von Furstenberg wardrobe on Tech Ticker. But from the looks of some of her BusinessWeek videos, Holahan prefers a more informal look. Honestly, Catherine: Was a tank top the best look to go for, even when talking about as light a subject as Web widgets? -
ashton kutcher
Actor assures tech reporter he's not a puppet, but a real business boy
In a short interview for Yahoo, giggly Tech Ticker reporter Sarah Lacy gave model-turned-actor-turned-investor Ashton Kutcher a chance to let everyone know that he's not just a pretty face as a company founder, but "isn't getting much sleep" while managing every facet of his new startup, Blahgirls. This week he's been at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco promoting his new celebrity gossip and humor site, where cheeky, animated teenage girls keep a blog and appear in two short videos a week — in the first batch, we meet the character Stewart, a fey online gossip who, purely coincidentally, has a pink fauxhawk. Full interview after the jump. More » -
social networks
4 ways Facebook helped Sarah Lacy's career
Sarah Lacy, the BusinessWeek.com columnist whose pearl necklaces and resistance to insults I've always admired, explains to U.S. News & World Report how to use Facebook to "fire up your career." Yet she graciously avoids bragging about how she used Facebook to catapult herself to stardom. Lacy's personal assistant is just getting started on the job, so we thought we'd help out: More » -
blogging for dollars
Tech insiders learn the outside sucks
"I am really trying to get off of the PR bandwagon," declares the formerly PR-friendly Robert Scoble. "We write something is amazing in the morning and then total junk in the afternoon," gripes Web 2.0 event regular Sarah Lacy. You see, neither Scoble nor Lacy got one of the secret advance "pre-briefings" from overhyped search engine Cuil prior to the site's launch on Sunday night. So they didn't get to lead the charge of Cuil is kewl! announcements, nor the backwash of Umm, maybe not retractions. Don't dismiss the pair's lengthy posts as sour grapes. More » -
nowpublic
Robert Scoble, other Valley bon vivants subject of latest ego-stroking linkbait
Vancouver-based NowPublic is ostensibly all about citizen journalism. But since Guy Kawasaki sold Truemors to it and signed up as an advisor, it's becoming better known for publishing flattering lists of "influencers," supposedly ranking them according to various social media metrics. The first "Most Public" list focused on New York, but a new list for the Valley and San Francisco is "coming soon." And by virtue of being included in the latest edition, we received an early copy as a press release. Who comes out on top? Ubiquitous attention slut Robert Scoble, naturally. Full list after the jump. More » -
gallery
Justin Kan, raw and undressed, in kerfuffle at TechCrunch afterparty
Can't get enough of this weekend's TechCrunch party? Valleywag's camera was on the scene as Justin.tv's Justin Kan shed his shirt and got into a heated altercation with OpenHulu creator and Ustream.tv employee Matt Schlicht over accusations of content poaching. More » -
party report
Lame as it ever was, TechCrunch party spawns much better afterparty
TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is viciously critical of Web startups that make their users pay for their wares. But he's perfectly happy to charge party sponsors for booths. The return on investment was hard to find at TechCrunch's annual party held at August Capital's Sand Hill Road offices on Friday. The booths, in the midst of free booze, pretty people, and business cards to swap, went completely unnoticed. The party, TechCrunch's third annual event held with the VC firm, was unremarkable. But the afterparty was legendary. We got in and took photos of the whole thing. More » -
f8
Early to bed, early to rise makes Facebook hackathon lame in Zuckerberg's eyes
COO Sheryl Sandberg and PR chief-turned-platform politician Eliot Schrage, Facebook's no-fun adults, are fully in charge of Facebook. The latest evidence? Facebook's second annual F8 developers' conference has another "hackathon." But unlike last year's all-night session, it hardly deserves the name. It starts at 3 p.m. and ends at 11 p.m., presumably so Schrage can go home and get a good night's sleep before calling reporters on the East Coast to tell them of Facebook's fabulous new platform achievements. Developers are still raging about the notion that Schrage, a PR guy, is in charge of Facebook's development platform. At a recent party in San Francisco, Ben Ling, the technical guy behind the platform, was spotted rolling his eyes when Schrage's name came up. More » -
great moments in journalism
Playboy wants top blogger to pose topless
The whole Xeni Jardin / Violet Blue thing continues to backfire on us. A female editor at Playboy.com alerted us to a "Who's the Web's hottest blogger"? contest they thought up after ogling last week's photos of the two cozied-up lady bloggers. The prize? Playboy will offer the winner a "topless or nude" photo shoot for their site. I fact-checked it with them, and let's be clear: Topless, nude, or forget it. The contestants are Jardin and Blue, plus Julie Alexandra, Veronica Belmont, Amanda Congdon, Brigitte Dale, Sarah Lacy, Sarah Austin and Natali Del Conte. I know what you're thinking: Good luck getting the winner to take it off. As a former Playboy reader (many of the articles are good) I wish they'd asked around first. It'd be easy to solicit nine very photogenic girlbloggers eager to claim the prize. Who'll be #1? Right now the obscure-but-well-shot Brigitte Dale is ahead, but I expect Veronica Belmont's Gadgetboy Army to mobilize today and sweep her to a decisive win — and a decisive NO. Sarah Austin sums up her cognitive dissonance: "Not sure how I feel about being in Playboy's popularity contest. Maybe I'd feel better if I was winning?" -
we read twitter so you don't have to
Now we can breathe: Sarah Lacy has found a personal assistant
So you know how in Sex and the City: The Movie, Carrie Bradshaw interviews, like, a bazillion young women trying to find a personal assistant before finally deciding on the sassy, "urban," but safe Jennifer Hudson? No? OK, well, if you saw the movie it was you'd know it was such an ordeal. And then you'd have sympathy for famous reporter and author Sarah Lacy — who, like Bradshaw, just found herself a personal assistant and sent a Twitter message about it last night. She writes: More » -
books
Sarah Lacy to tour middle America
Book tours? So old media — or rather, not profitable enough for book publishers to conduct except for celebrity writers. Sarah Lacy, the author of Web 2.0 nonfiction chronicle Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, plans to defy that wisdom and go on a 10-city tour herself. She's already included her hometown of Memphis and the provincial burgs of Des Moines and Portland, and is asking for suggestions on the other cities — anywhere but New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Our ideas: More » -
geek love
Dating Mark Zuckerberg: the rules
A year ago this summer, Priscilla Chan graduated from Harvard and moved to Palo Alto to live near her boyfriend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. But before she did, Chan and Zuckerberg, pictured, held a series of "negotiations" over how often she would get to see him, according to Sarah Lacy's book Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good. The final contract, according to Lacy: More » -
clips
What happens when Sarah Lacy interviews Kara Swisher? One long interruption
Tech Ticker's Sarah Lacy and BoomTown's Kara Swisher share a particular interviewing style: Badgering their subject into submission through interruptions, personal anecdotes, and swift corrections. The main difference is that Lacy smiles when she does it. The technique is effective with tech titans and media moguls, but did it work when Lacy interviewed Swisher? Check out the clip above to find out. -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
The complete index to "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good"
Sarah Lacy's book about Web 2.0, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, officially comes out today (and there's a book party at Otis on Maiden Lane in San Francisco this evening). We've run the index, in an homage to Web 1.0 memoir Burn Rate, page by page over the past week. Here's the full set: More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
Z is for Zuckerberg, the richest of all
Money isn't everything. Mark Zuckerberg may have the highest net worth among his generation of entrepreneurs, but the Facebook CEO only gets 21 out of 294 pages in Sarah Lacy's new Web 2.0 book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good. That's 16 more than his sister, nerd chanteuse Randi Jayne Zuckerberg, which tells us Lacy has her priorities all wrong. The Zuckerbergs' index page: More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
T is for Twitter, which turned blogging small
Twitter, the 140-characters at a time blogging service, was shaped by its founder's dry, understated sense of humor. The company, not to mention the service, seems to be a sort of Silicon Valley inside joke that, improbably, Ev Williams and his fellow Twitterers have managed to play on the rest of the world. For this, Sarah Lacy labels Williams a "nontrepreneur." Fittingly, Sarah Lacy gave his microcompany got a mere four pages in her new book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
R is for Rose, who made Digg his toy
Kevin Rose takes up 62 out of 294 pages in Sarah Lacy's Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, her new book about Web 2.0. That's less than I expected, since Rose was the coverboy for the BusinessWeek story, co-written by Lacy, which launched her book. From the look of the index, not much time is spent on the women Rose is said to have "plowed through", as his friend Alex Albrecht once put it: -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
P is for Parker, the Valley's bad boy
Sean Parker has had a hand in some of the Valley's biggest successes. His first company, Napster, took the world by storm, but didn't make Parker rich. His second, Plaxo, just sold to Comcast. And his third, Facebook — well, say no more. Except for the bit about him getting kicked out, according to Mark Zuckerberg's legal testimony, for a cocaine arrest. (Parker characterized the incident as "a misunderstanding.") That and more is covered in the 21 pages Sarah Lacy devotes to Parker in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, new book about Web 2.0. The index page where Parker is listed: More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
L is for Levchin, who never goes slow
Max Levchin, the cofounder of PayPal and the CEO of Slide, measures nearly everything, down to the optimum price to pay for an engagement ring. If he needs a metric for self-importance, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, Sarah Lacy's new book about Web 2.0, provides one. He occupies 78 out of 294 pages, more than anyone else. Here are the index pages for "F" through "M": More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
F is for Fitzpatrick, and "hookers and blow"
LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick is a prankster, as evidenced by his Halloween costume last year, when the new Googler dressed up as Facebook to mock his coworkers' fears of the social network. I'm told that in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, Sarah Lacy's new book about Web 2.0, there's an anecdote about Fitzpatrick submitting an expense report — successfully! — for "hookers and blow" when he worked at blog software startup Six Apart. That was likely a reference to the early days of LiveJournal, when users made ridiculous accusations that Fitzpatrick was spending money meant for servers and bandwidth on "hookers and blow." We'd love to hear more, but alas, Fitzpatrick only got 8 out of 294 pages, according to the book's index. Here's the page for "D" through "F": More » -
caption contest
Handvertising is the new banner ad
An impromptu "Tweetup" at Medjool from the online shoe salesfolk at Zappos lured reporter Sarah Lacy out to Medjool. The promise: free booze if you promoted the website with a backhanded mention. Can you suggest a better caption? Do so in the comments. Yesterday's winner: "This picture brought to you by Seagate" by Duncan. (Photo by Scott Beale) -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big
Few people outside Silicon Valley have heard of Roelof Botha. But the former CFO of PayPal is famous here. His two claims to fame: negotiating that company's $1.5 billion sale to eBay, and later, as a partner at Sequoia Capital, investing in YouTube and quickly flipping the startup to Google for $1.65 billion. Is it a coincidence that that figure is 10 percent higher than his PayPal score? Few insiders think so. Botha gets four pages in Sarah Lacy's Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good — more than Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Other figures who appear on the second page of her Web 2.0 book's index: John Battelle, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, Facebook board member Jim Breyer, blog blowhard Jason Calacanis, and YouTube cofounder Steve Chen, whom Botha made quite wealthy. More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg
Digg cofounder Jay Adelson is now asked by the likes of Kara Swisher how he'd fix big media companies, as in this clip. But there was a time when he barely knew what to do with his own Internet startup, Equinix. That tale and more covers 54 out of 294 pages in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, Sarah Lacy's soon-to-be-released book about Web 2.0. The first page of the book's index, one of many to come: More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
The index to Sarah Lacy's Web 2.0 book, revealed
In Silicon Valley, it's all about keeping score. The question entrepreneurs are asking about Sarah Lacy's Web 2.0 book: Am I in it? And how many pages? Michael Wolff's chronicle of the first Web bubble, Burn Rate, had a clever conceit: The index was published online at burnrate.com, driving people online to see if they were included in the tell-all, and then to the bookstores to see what Wolff had to say about them. (Too clever by half: The website is now abandoned, and there's no trace of the online-only index.) Lacy's instant history of this frothy time, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, could benefit from having its index published. The book is coming out a week from tomorrow, but it's already in the hands of most of the people she wrote about. Don't you think the likes of Kevin Rose, Max Levchin, and Mark Zuckerberg are counting the number of pages Lacy devoted to them? Soon you can, too. I'll be running all the pages from the index here over the next few days.









































