Tech PR Smarts: 2011′s Most Influential Media (You Never Heard Of)

With 2012 just over the horizon, tech companies’ Lords of All Media — meaning those in charge of marketing/advertising/social media/PR — are in high gear to decide where to commit their communications resources for the coming year. The Good News: As far as top influential tech media go, targeting isn’t likely to be that different from 2011. . .or for that matter, from 2010. That’s also the bad news, but more on that in a just a sec.

PR SourceCode’s list of top 2011 tech media and bloggers shows a same-state consistency in PR pros’ views on the most influential. All the usual suspects made the list.

Top Tweeters:

1. David Pogue – New York Times
2. Pete Cashmore – Mashable
3. Don Clark – Wall Street Journal
4. Stacey Higginbotham – GigaOM
5. Walt Mossberg – Wall Street Journal

Top Tech Blogs Associated with Publications:

1. Bits – New York Times
2. All Things Digital – Wall Street Journal
3. Security Weblog – InformationWeek
4. Pogue’s Posts – New York Times
5. Digits – The Wall Street Journal

Top “Standalone” Tech Blogs:

1. TechCrunch
2. GigaOM
3. Mashable
4. Gizmodo
5. Engadget

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. (SMACK!) Oops, sorry — dozed off for a minute.

So your top media and blogs to target for placement in 2012 are The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GigaOM (syndicated in the New York Times) and a pair of tech blogs owned by media giant AOL: TechCrunch and Engadget? Gee, what happened to the print world’s demise at the hands of online media? You mean to say that top mainstream and social media are mostly the same folk and the whole print vs. online squabble is just a smokescreen for another industry oligarchy? Yep, so deal with it. A few obvious conclusions:

• Influential Ain’t the Same as Accessible. Genealogy buffs tend to claim descent from the illustrious — a Cleopatra or Napoleon — never from Mary or Joe Shmo. In the same vein, PR survey respondents always cite the absolute top media as “most influential.” That doesn’t make them related or even in tight with the media’s A-Team members, who are notoriously evasive and elusive, even hermit-like.
  
• Limited Choices = Stiff Competition. One reason the inscrutable “most influential” are the also the “most unreachable”: the thousands of tech companies plaguing them with 10s of thousands of pitches. There are days when Pogue and Mossberg must feel like Bruce Almighty trying to answer prayers, and wish they could clone themselves.
• Media Giants Enthralled with Tech Giants. Turning to the dark side. . .Are tech journalists cowardly? Author/commentator Mike Daisey thinks so and raises hell with tech media for what he dubs their at times cozy and uncritical relationship with the tech giants they cover. Why some tech press act that way, he says — because those on good behavior tend to get the best access. Ask yerself, “When was the last time I read a scathing tech analysis of anything?”  Then think back to the tech journalists who led the dot.com marching band off a cliff on March 10, 2000.
• Conflict of Interest. Egads, journalistic ethical codes under fire? You bet. Case in point: the TechCrunch rave on Bitcasa, a company backed by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s own venture fund. Maybe, as owner AOL opines, TechCrunch needs to be held to a different standard of journo integrity, or maybe Kara Swisher got it right, calling the deal “a giant, corrupt Silicon Valley pig pile.” Either way, in PR it’s hard competing with owner’s pet companies.

Bearing the above caveats in mind, sure it’s still worthwhile to aim high and go for the top media. Just don’t be ridiculous about it. And in between those moments you pitch the Mighty, try building and leveraging your own list of “Most Influential Tech Media You Never Heard of” — press and bloggers that may not have the cache of the Big Guys, but do hold sway in their respective niches and can influence both investment and customer buying decisions. There are quite a few to choose from and they’re definitely worth pursuing. Some of my personal favorites:

• GENERAL: Eric Savitz – Forbes. Okay, it’s Forbes and yeah, they’re a media giant, so I’m starting out with a major exception – everybody knows who Eric Savitz is (or should). No tech nook or cranny left untouched. Accepts outstanding guest blogs by those with something daring, different, previously never heard.
• THE FUTURE OF MEDIA (AND OTHER STUFF): Jonathan Dube – Cyberjournalist.net. Primarily a news aggregator, but this former AOL news chief knows to curate what matters, now and beyond.
• APPS: Stuart Dredge – The Guardian Apps Blog and appside. Think you’ve heard everything there is to know about apps? Think again. Brit Stuart Dredge on the latest & greatest. My only regret: looks like he’s given up his regular blog, a pity because it was a hoot. Check out Things I do that annoy technology PRs.
• EVERYTHING MOBILE: Zach Epstein, Boy Genius Report. And he really he is. Great, honest product reviews.
• CLOUD COMPUTING: Cloud Computing Journal. Need a home for your blog on the cloud? Here ya go.

Jim Crawford is the president and founder of Crawford PR and the author of Black Box Blog, where he offers hard-earned perspective on public relations for the tech and telecom industries.

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