Friday

Social Network

Techmeme’s New Editor: An Interview with Megan McCarthy

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Techmeme is a semi-automated site that tracks the hottest conversations amongst tech blogs each day, with updates every five minutes. It’s one of the most innovative efforts in news gathering today. In December, Techmeme hired its first human editor, freelance writer Megan McCarthy.

McCarthy tends the gears of Techmeme, makes sure the content on the site remains of high quality and helps ensure the inclusion of new and vital voices. It sounds like an awesome job and one that has probably never existed before – a half woman, half robot, news gathering machine. How can you get your blog on Techmeme? What’s in the future for the site? We questioned Megan in the following interview.

Sponsor

The Techmeme Editor’s Job Each Day

Marshall Kirkpatrick: What do you do all day? I imagine you standing next to one of the most awesome news discovery machines available, tending it, making sure it keeps running smoothly, and looking out further than its reaches to feed it things it hasn’t gotten to yet itself. Is that an accurate picture?

Megan McCarthy: That is honestly accurate, really. I make sure that the news on Techmeme represents an accurate, current, and full overview of what’s happening in technology right now. So, that’s trimming back tales that aren’t relevant, adding in viewpoints that ought to be heard, etc.

Marshall: Can you tell us a small bit about your personal background?

Megan: My personal background is a small varied. Prior to [writing for] Valleywag, I bounced around a few different jobs and places and never really found a niche. I lived in Hawaii for a few years, had various office drone jobs and other gigs to pay the bills (Nanny, bartender, coffee server). But I loved following technology and reading about what was happening in silicon valley – and I’ve been a news junkie in view of the fact that I was childish.

News Selection and Twitter Tips on Techmeme

Marshall: So, did your appearance on board “break” the “detachment” of the site?

Megan: Techmeme is biased and has been so for a while. If you read Gabe’s post announcing the addendum of an editor, he makes that point.

What do you reckon, though? What changes have you noticed in view of the fact that I joined?

Marshall: I have noticed no changes to tale selection, perhaps less wonky stuff. I’ve always considered Techmeme a very reliable source of news and I reckon you’re doing a excellent job continuing that tradition – but here were certainly some people who grumbled about the human touch life formally introduced, an editor.

Megan: I reckon some of those people might grumble about anything.

Marshall: How can new bloggers get indexed on Techmeme?

Megan: We just introduced a program everywhere people can tip relevant posts to us through Twitter. Anyone can tip any post they reckon is relevant to us.

Marshall: How is the new Twitter tips program working out? I see a lot of tales go up with thanks to Twitter, quite a lot – is it changing the face of the site substantially? Changing the content?

I see a handful of people getting thanks over and again, I imagine here’s limited participation so far but how does the algorithm determine whose tips to accept and whose not to?

Also, a lot of people are sending tips regarding their own tales – is that ok? Even mainstream media outlets.

Megan: I don’t reckon it’s changing the content overall. Many of the tales that are tipped are ones which are worthy of a Techmeme headline. Not everything that gets tipped to us gets on the site. Here are two situations that I can reckon of everywhere the tip program does affect the content: It can help surface breaking tales quicker, and if here are two similar tales from different outlets and someone cares enough to tip a certain one, that will probably effect which one ends up as a headline on Techmeme.

As for people tipping their own tales… personally I’m not completely opposed to it. If a writer has a breaking tale that he or she desires to let us know straight away, that’s a excellent way to do it. But, they must keep in mind that their twitter handle will be credited with tipping us to the tale. If “Thanks: Marshall” showed up next to every Techmeme headline you get, people might place two and two collectively and reckon that you really like your work.

To my knowledge, the identity of the person tipping the tale has no effect on whether or not it will show up on the page. It’s about the post itself.

Marshall: Well, if shame and loads of people saying “you’re an f*ing jackass” was sufficient deterrent to anti-social behavior in social media, then…[indecipherable, record of this part of the conversation lost forever.]

Megan: Ha. Is he though?

Marshall: Oh I’m sure he is. ANYWAY. Is accuracy taken into account on Techmeme?

Megan: Accuracy is absolutely taken into account on Techmeme. That’s one of my goals, anyway. If here’s a post which has a lot of buzz around it, which turns out not to be right…

Marshall: What does that look like? Are you like “Steve Jobs is NOT out at Apple, I don’t believe those reports! Tale…gone!”

Megan: Or, a tale that says “Steve Jobs NOT out at Apple” gets published next to the earlier, erroneous rumor.

Marshall: Then you yank the fake tale?

Megan: Either yank it or surround it with tales pointing out *why* it’s fake. Now and again the fake rumor becomes a tale itself and yanking it can be jarring. We want our readers to be able to visit the site and know what’s vacant on in technology – to know what people are talking about. The earlier rumor would probably be replaced as the top tale by one with the right information, but yanking it without charitable our readers full context of the overall arc might be a bit jarring.

Marshall: You have to be reading a lot of these tales in fantastic detail. What time does your work day start and end?

Megan: I start around 7:30ish and end later than that. News never stops!

The Future of Techmeme and Other Aggregators

Marshall: So, everyone desires to be an aggregator these days. All the childish kids are like “mommy, I’m vacant to grow up to find recommended tales for an online news publisher.”

What kinds of things do you foresee becoming points of leverage for content aggregators and news discovers in the future?

Megan: I reckon a reliable real-time web is vacant to have the greatest impact on aggregation services. I’d like to be able to see tales from sites as they’re published, without a lag.

I hope that quality, accurate, and speedy tales get rewarded by receiving more attention – and that new voices are learned and make the media chorus sound fuller and stronger.

You were asking me about my electric sheep dreams.

Marshall: Are you a cyborg?

Megan: Depends on my mood.

Marshall: At least between 7am and 7pm?

Megan: That sounds about right. This is super-nerdy, but reading an overwhelming amount of news is something that I very delight in doing.

Thanks to Megan McCarthy and Techmeme for doing this interview and doing the things they do each day – help us find the hottest conversation in technology. We appreciate it. You can find Megan on Twitter as well. Photo at top by Scott Beale

Discuss