TechCrunch Creator/ Blogger to Leave AOL Over Conflict of Interest

Michael Arrington, editor and founder of TechCrunch has parted ways with AOL, owner of the blog. Although AOL and Arrington just joined together last year, the break up seems to stem from a conflict of interest concerning Arrington and his latest business. According to “Tech Blogger Parts With AOL” by Claire Cain Miller of NYtimes.com, Arrington started CrunchFund, “a venture capital fund backed by AOL that invests in start-ups like those that TechCrunch covers”.

The conflict of interest arises from TechCrunch being a very influential tech blog. Arrington would be reviewing companies that he could also choose to invest in or already has invested in. Would he stay impartial in his reviews? This is the kind of question that most journalists seek to avoid but Arrington is a blogger. Some bloggers make it very clear that they are not journalists even if their blog may have more influence than typical media outlets.   As Jeff Jarvis, “director of the interactive journalism program at the City University’s Graduate School of Journalism of New York” is quoted in the article as saying

“There are all sorts of people who don’t call themselves journalists now who traffic in information, as governments put out data, companies put out raw information and people in the course of their business gather and share information… That’s the way Arrington saw TechCrunch”

This type of conflict would solely be Arrington’s problem if Arrington still owned TechCrunch but as an employee of AOL, he put the company in a very awkward position. That position led to the break up.

The article also brought up the problems of personal brands. Jarvis asked, “If a blog is a person, can you buy the blog and thus buy the person and all of their attributes?” Arrington is incredibly connected to TechCrunch - there is a worry that his departure will harm the blog. The article reports that “two people briefed on the developments who was not authorized to speak publicly” stated employees/writers of the blog might leave.

Hopefully, Arrington wasn't caught off guard by the break up. If AOL decided to keep Arrington as editor, it would have made future start up reviews less credible.  Arrington may not be held to typical rules of journalism but whether written by a journalist, blogger, or spur-of-the-moment reviewer, any start-up review written from the perspective of an investor of that start-up is going to be seen as unbiased. Think about it, if you were an editor of a tech blog, would you allow a negative review of a company you were investing in?