Sarah Lacy: 'Yahoo Embraces the Web 2.0 Way of Journalism'
The BusinessWeek.com columnist, author and co-host of Yahoo's new "Tech Ticker" video blog says that while some journalists see print media as more prestigious, many readers want news "on demand, on their browser."

By Patrick Phillips
I Want Media, 02/15/08


UPDATE: The Mark Zuckerberg interview controversy.

Sarah Lacy is quite a busy journalist. She's the co-host of "Tech Ticker," a self-described "kick ass" daily video-centric blog on technology investing, launching this week on Yahoo Finance. She writes a biweekly technology column for BusinessWeek.com called "Valley Girl." And, in May, her first book, "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0," about the new generation of Internet moguls, will be published by Penguin Group's Gotham Books.

The Memphis, Tenn. native -- described by "Tech Ticker" as "brainy, irreverent and fun" -- is said to have made a name for herself as a reporter for BusinessWeek after writing an August 2006 cover story that launched Digg founder Kevin Rose "into stardom." She has also made a name for herself as the "hottest reporter" in Silicon Valley, according to the industry gossip blog Valleywag.

Lacy says that the innovative "Tech Ticker" has a "very modern approach" to journalism.

I Want Media: What's the goal of "Tech Ticker"?

Sarah Lacy: The broad goal is to continue to make Yahoo Finance the top finance site on the Web. It got that title early on by being the place you'd go for quotes, charts and aggregated, ticker-ized news. But Yahoo wisely sees that that's not a defensible position on the Web anymore.

Video programming helped make Yahoo Sports the No. 1 sports destination. We're stealing directly from that "playbook." They help people sort through fantasy sports picks; we help them sort through tech stocks.

IWM: Does "Tech Ticker" compete with television business news like, say, CNBC and Fox Business Network?

Lacy: Yes and no. We only cover tech, and even though tech is generally the most dominant subject on any business outlet, we still don't have the same pressure to cover everything.

The bigger difference to me is the blog format. There is no "filler" on "Tech Ticker" because we don't have 24-hours of air time to fill. We focus on important and untold stories and tell them well. And we rely on Yahoo's partnerships with other media to fill out the rest.

We're utilizing the blog format to focus on tech stories and aggregate the rest from partners. We're not a live network; we've got a very lean staff. You can count us on two hands -- which I find amazing, if you check out the quality.

Also, we're not dictating how people consume "Tech Ticker." You can come to our main page and leave it up all day, watching new segments rotating into the player. Our videos are also ticker-ized and embeddable. It's possible many people just see "Tech Ticker" when their favorite blog grabs a clip or by doing a Yahoo Finance search on a stock and stumbling onto a particular story. That's fine with us. It's a very modern approach.

IWM: Is the Internet the best way to reach business news audiences today?

Lacy: Absolutely. When I worked at BusinessWeek, I always found it silly when sources would ask me if stories were going in the magazine or online. I usually asked how they read BusinessWeek, and the answer was almost always online. There's still a weird prestige attached to print, but really people want stuff on demand, on their browser.

IWM: Will you be the next Amanda Congdon? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Lacy: Without saying if it's good or bad -- it's just not me. I don't know Amanda. But from what I've read she considers herself more of an entertainer.

I've been a pretty serious business journalist for more than 10 years. I've covered some fun stories, yes, but I've also covered agribusiness and bonds and enterprise software. I don't think anyone who has worked at BusinessWeek could be called the next Amanda Congdon! It's a pretty old-school place!

IWM: Valleywag describes you as the "hottest reporter" in Silicon Valley." Does it help an online video reporter to be "hot"?

Lacy: Ahhh, yes, the famous "Smoking Sarah Lacy" pic. Thank you, Nick Denton! That photo has basically become my online headshot. My husband just took it one Saturday morning in a bowling alley. I don't think I even had makeup on.

But to answer your question -- I think it's basically a wash. There are obviously advantages. It's always a plus to be considered attractive in our society. But there are as many disadvantages: People don't take you seriously. If I scoop a male on a story they say it's because of the way I look. People have said I couldn't possibly understand technology because of how I look -- which is just bizarre to me. People write very objectifying and many times hurtful things on blogs, and that's hard for my husband and my family to read.

But all of that is on the margin. The three biggest accomplishments in my professional life have been working at BusinessWeek, writing a book, and now, this job at "Tech Ticker." And and I didn't get any of it because of looks. I got it because I worked my ass off to become a better reporter and writer. On the other hand, I like who I am, I like being a girl, and I like how I look. So I'm not going to try to be something else to please other people. People call me flirty, but really I'm just from the South -- that's how women are raised there! If that means people want to underestimate me, go for it.

IWM: You wear many hats -- print journalist, online video interviewer, blogger. Which role is most important?

Lacy: Anyone who is the least bit ambitious in the media is all obsessed with becoming a brand. I've long run my career as if I'm a "small business" -- trying to build a body of work, base of sources and solid expertise, no matter where I work. I think only now have I become somewhat of a brand, in the Valley at least, and it's been a long, arduous process. It seemed overnight with the Digg cover in BusinessWeek, but some eight or nine years of reporting led to that moment.

What no one tells you is how hard it is to be a brand. You need to keep feeding it, and everything you do has a bigger microscope on it. Some people want to tear you down, no matter what. And people in our little microcosm of the Valley watch everything you do. At the same time, you need to realize -- especially in my case -- it's just our little microcosm.

IWM: In your most recent BusinessWeek.com column you write: "The traditional media business is disintegrating and in desperate need of a new business model that supports high-quality journalism and makes money." ... Will "Tech Ticker" be it?

Lacy: No, not alone. But it could be one model. What I like about "Tech Ticker" is it's the first example of a huge media company with scale really embracing the Web 2.0 way of journalism.

Newspapers and magazines have Web sites, but they're not really designed to be interactive. Many traditional journalists still want to write for print -- they're just forced into being online. On the other hand, I have no desire to work in TV; I'm not trying to be good at TV. I think Web video when done well is just far more interesting and has a larger audience by an order of magnitude.

But the problem when it comes to remaking an industry is that "Tech Ticker" -- or blogs like TechCrunch and Gawker -- only employ a handful of people. Their strength is in operating at substantially lower costs and utilizing technology, i.e., linking to competitors, user-generated contributions, to build a "site of record" without much of a traditional staff. So, if you look at it from the point of view of an industry, it's not a near-term solution. I fear there's going to be a lot of pain in media for a long time.

IWM: You used to write for BusinessWeek, the print magazine. What do you see as the future of business magazines in print?

Lacy: There will be a few national print magazines that make it. Right now, everyone is slogging it out to see who it'll be. Regional and trade pubs are less affected, I think. It's not as acute as what's going on with newspapers, but it is similar. That's one reason you see so many business magazines trying to become more "lifestyle" publications. But it'll be slow.

The sad thing is publishers try to solve a fundamental shift in business by a few layoffs every year. That only makes things worse, because it continually erodes the quality and kills morale without solving anything. All this said, I think BusinessWeek is better positioned than most titles.

IWM: In the same BusinessWeek.com column you describe Yahoo as "the biggest force in media that's not called a media company." Can you elaborate?

Lacy: Yahoo and Google are incredibly influential in making everyone's "new media" strategy work. Whether you are BusinessWeek, a blog, or even Digg, they are the firehoses that direct this huge torrent of eyeballs around the Web and, hence, the advertising dollars.

Google does this more or less agnostically through search; Yahoo does it through partnerships and aggregating content. That gives it slightly more editorial control. Yahoo is the single biggest force of traffic for nearly any business site's traffic, thanks to the dominance of Yahoo Finance. To me, that's the closest we have to a large scale, true-Internet-centric media player. Even CNET still operates like a print publication -- just one that happens to be on the Web.

IWM: What's your best guess: Will Microsoft succeed in buying Yahoo?

Lacy: Even I'm sick of this one -- and I cover Yahoo for Yahoo from Yahoo! I'll answer by sending people to my BusinessWeek column. Or to "Tech Ticker," where I think I've been pretty outspoken (and amazingly still work at Yahoo. Gotta give them credit for that.)

IWM: Your new book, "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good," explores the lives of today's young Internet moguls. Why write a book about Web 2.0?

Lacy: This book tells the behind-the-scenes stories of some of the hottest and most defining companies of the Web 2.0 era through the entrepreneurs' eyes, starting with the bust in 2000, which I lived through as a journalist in Silicon Valley.

It's amazing how much ink can be spilled on companies like Digg and Facebook without getting a true sense of who these people are and what drives them. I guarantee that even these guys' friends will be surprised by some of the stuff in my book. I had total access to everyone I wanted to include.

Web 2.0 is an incredibly socially transformative movement, and while people in the Valley live and breathe it, most people outside the Valley have no idea what it is. Although I think people in the echo chamber will enjoy it, this book is really written for a mass audience. Hopefully, it will be a great read. Books like "Barbarians at the Gate" and "Liar's Poker" are still widely read because they tell a great story of a pivotal time in business and culture.

IWM: I have to ask: Are you lucky? Or are you good?

Lacy: Ha. If those are the only two choices, I'd go with lucky. In my early 20's I dropped everything (except my live-in boyfriend/now husband, of course) and moved to Silicon Valley to cover finance. There's no way my career would have been as exciting had I moved anywhere else in the world. Simply by being here I've witnessed an incredible business and culture story that has changed the way business works, not to mention how we all communicate and interact.

More than being "good," I have worked incredibly hard -- like 24/7 hard. At the end of my book, I say that one of the guys is not so much "lucky" or "good" as he is simply determined. While I'm nowhere near as successful as he is, but I'd probably say the same thing for myself.