Yes, Of Course Ill Resign Unless Mike Arrington Chooses His Successor | TechCrunch

9/8/11 2:55 PM

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Yes,%Of%Course%Ill%Resign%Unless%Mike Arrington%Chooses%His%Successor
PAUL%CARR VIEW%AUTHOR%PAGE
Paul Carr is, by process of elimination, a writer. He writes a weekly column for TechCrunch, loosely focussing on media and technology. For the first part of what he laughingly calls his career, he edited various publications and founded numerous businesses with varying degrees of abysmal failure. After getting fired from every job hed ever had including at least... Learn More posted 40 mins ago 36 Comments

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TechCrunch on Facebook Oh boy. At this point, even the shit-show is becoming a shit-show. According to Dan Primack at Fortune, Mike Arrington has been fired by AOL. My inbox is full of emails from journalists, friends and total strangers all asking if I can explain whats going on. The vast majority of those correspondents are clearly hoping for a mass walkout of writers if Mike is really gone. The Atlantic is already predicting what might happen postwalkout. Meantime, Mike has gone to ground presumably somewhere in his fortified Seattle compound although with apparently as little idea as any of us what the final outcome will be. Primacks story says its a fait accompli, while others say the situation is still developing. I spoke to a senior staffer at TCHQ yesterday who told me No-one knows anything. Its bizarre. Surreal. Rather than replying to a billion emails, or appearing on Bloomberg, or talking to PBS or Tweeting something threatening-but-ambiguous; heres my position. And its basically unchanged from where I was last week. TechCrunch lives or dies on its editorial independence. Right now, that means TechCrunch in the person of its founding editor must be allowed to pick its next Editor In Chief. Arianna Huffington has made clear that she wants Mike gone and TechCrunch to be assimilated into Huffington Post, under her direct control. That means whoever she might pick as editor will be little more than an avatar for her; a cardboard cut-out installed to do her bidding. Thats so ridiculously unacceptable a situation that the idea makes me feel physically sick. It will be the death of TechCrunch and everything weve all worked for these past years.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/08/not-leaving-quietly/
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Yes, Of Course Ill Resign Unless Mike Arrington Chooses His Successor | TechCrunch

9/8/11 2:55 PM

worked for these past years. Sure, the brand will live on and as long as we keep writing about cool apps well probably still get amazing traffic. But traffic and a famous domain name is not why I or most of the TechCrunch staff and editors Ive spoken to in the past few days came to work here. As Fred Wilson wrote earlier today: TechCrunch also has a voice, a swagger, a fuck you attitude that comes from Mike They need to keep the remaining team, the voice, and that attitude if they want to remain at the top of the world of tech media. Damn fucking right. Presumably, given how much TechCrunch and AOL both have riding on the success of next weeks Disrupt conference, an announcement as to TechCrunchs future leadership must be imminent. Im not going to speak for the other members of the team, but my own position is clear: unless Mike Arrington appoints his own successor, guaranteeing that TechCrunch retains its editorial independence, Im gone. Done. Out of the door. Ceding control to the Huffington Post will be the death of everything the voice, the swagger, the fuck you attitude that makes TechCrunch great; and Im not going to stay around to watch that happen. Ok, glad to have cleared that up. Now Im going for lunch.

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36 comments Michael Arrington sigh. Reply 41 Like Subscribe 29 minutes ago Matt Lawson Reply Top Commenter Top Commenter Founder at TechCrunch Add a comment

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Please start a new blog. Thanks for all the years of daily mind candy. 3 Like 25 minutes ago

Alexander Debelov San Francisco, California So Mike, any plans for the near future? Are you going to be VC full-time now? Reply Like 22 minutes ago Ryan Shank Works at NEW Customer Service Companies Just start another blog. Reply View 12 more Doug Ludlow 29 years old Paul, I know you can't speak for everyone at TechCrunch, but has there been any discussion amongst the core team about leaving TechCrunch en masse, and starting a competing technology blog? It would keep the same swagger, "fuck you" attitude, core writing team - all that would be different would be the URL. Reply 19 Like Subscribe 34 minutes ago Asher Hunt Product Lead, Founder at Ureka 1 Like 22 minutes ago

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Yes, Of Course Ill Resign Unless Mike Arrington Chooses His Successor | TechCrunch
Asher Hunt Product Lead, Founder at Ureka Like! Reply 4 Like 27 minutes ago

9/8/11 2:55 PM

Arun Stephens And maybe the logo. Reply Danny Cabrera Classic AOL style, sucking the life outa everything they get their hands on. Anyways, we will continue to follow you guys no matter where you go! Reply 5 Like Subscribe 33 minutes ago 1 Like 14 minutes ago

Daniel A. Williams Systems Administrator and Technology Coordinator, Facilities Management at Murray State University POPCORN GETCHA POPCORN HERE, PEANUTS, BEER'S ICE COLD, TOO COLD TO HOLD. Reply 3 Like Subscribe 31 minutes ago Top Commenter The University of Western Ontario

Simon Cohen

Paul, the piece that has been missing for me and I'm assuming other TC readers is this: Why does an editor-in-chief appointed by someone other than Mike necessarily mean an end to editorial independence as you have come to understand that term? Has Huffington said that she intends on changing things at TC (beyond bringing you closer to the fold)? If she has, then I get it. You signed up for something and that something is going away. But what if, as would make a lot more sense, she's merely making sure that Mike's VC interests are in no way going to influence TC content (or vice versa)? Can you give us some more insight? Reply 1 Like Subscribe 32 minutes ago Hector Ramos Top Commenter San Juan, Puerto Rico

TechCrunch getting its next editor assigned by someone not from TechCrunch is not at all maintaining TechCrunch's editorial independence. It's not about it being a good or bad choice for editor, it's not letting TechCrunch itself maintain control what's at stake. Reply Like 17 minutes ago Reese Mitchell Top Commenter Owner at Shadow Inc.

BREAKING: In a holy unexpected turn Arianna Huffington announced today that Carol Bartz will head TechCrunch. The newly fired CEO of Yahoo was quoted as saying "I couldn't be fucking happier to land on my feet after the way I was tweeted by those fucking doofuses who sit on the fucking board of Yahoo". Reply 1 Like Subscribe 8 minutes ago

Atharv Vaish Software Engineer Intern at Business Insider You guys should start writing for the Verge, the blog for other ex-AOLers. Reply 1 Like Subscribe 25 minutes ago Hector Ramos Top Commenter San Juan, Puerto Rico

The ones from Engadget, who Mike loves so much? Reply Like 17 minutes ago Heiko Hebig Head of R&D at Hubert Burda Media watching from far away. all the best! Reply 1 Like Subscribe 37 minutes ago

Stuart Schram What's the point? Arrington wouldn't be falling on his sword for you. He's got his $30 mil. The rest is just silly drama. Horrible move, Paul. Also, your thing about editorial independence just doesn't make sense. TechCrunch can only truly be independent if some hopelessly compromised former employee is allowed to choose who rules the roost next? If Ariana et al. were confident of Mike's ability to make an ethical choice here, he wouldn't have gotten shitcanned to begin with. Sorry man, you sound woefully naive here. Reply Like Subscribe 18 minutes ago Blaine Elliott Los Angeles, California http://www.businessinsider.com/arrington-told-a-room-full-of-ceos-that-he-wouldmaniuplate-techcrunch-coverage-in-return-for-favors-2011-9 And I am left confused as to whether this accusation has merit or not... Reply Like Subscribe 13 minutes ago Gabriel Rene CRI

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Yes, Of Course Ill Resign Unless Mike Arrington Chooses His Successor | TechCrunch
Gabriel Rene CRI It's a little known fact that users can "unlike" a Facebook page by clicking the check box in the like button. I recommend a Facebook fan page page and campaign that calls on readers that support @michael arrington and the Techcrunch editorial staff by Unliking Techcrunch and refusing to give eyeballs until the team is re-instated and their independence restored! Unlike Techcrunch - until Mike is back! Reply Like Subscribe 16 minutes ago Andrew J. Borislow It's all good. Michael will abandon CrunchFund, become Chief Something Officer at the NEW Yahoo! soon, establish an edgy, current editorial direction and leave AOL scrambling for a translation tool to make sense of Ms. Huff's ramblings and penchant for sensationalism. Reply Like Subscribe 11 minutes ago Alexander Mimran Toronto, Ontario Getting rid of Mike would be like John Sculley firing Steve Jobs. The heart and soul of the company is with him and his morals. If he wasn't standing up for independence, it wouldn't be him. That's what AOL bought, as opposed to Huffpo which has no character other than Arianna's ego. Hope they can work this out... Reply Like Subscribe 16 minutes ago Alexander Mimran Toronto, Ontario Whoa. This post just got pulled!! Reply Like 10 minutes ago francisrmd (signed in using Yahoo) Good work Paul, lets see Huff succeed by alienated its best products/services and staff. Good luck to Arrington as well, cant wait to see what he accomplishes. Reply Like Subscribe 31 minutes ago Magnus Stjernstrom I now understand why all the daytime soap operas are getting cancelled. We don't need 'em anymore, we have TechCrunch. :) Reply Like Subscribe 29 minutes ago Abiel Abuy Top Commenter

9/8/11 2:55 PM

So once Arriana takes over... all of your post that has Arianna Huffington, Huffingtonpost or f*ck in it will be deleted? Reply Like Subscribe 31 minutes ago Bahaa' Awartany That's the spirit! Although TechCrunch posts are full of profanity lately but that's how things are here... Reply Like Subscribe 31 minutes ago Benjamin Kuryk American how about.... thisismynexttechcrunch.com? Reply Like Subscribe 29 minutes ago Eduardo Fenili Top Commenter

Why oh why did you go to AOL in the first place? :( So sad. I hope that things don't change... Reply Like Subscribe 31 minutes ago Stuart Schram Uh, so he could pocket the money for selling TechCrunch? Did you think it was out of altruism, or that he really enjoyed the office view? Reply Like 15 minutes ago Sandeep Shantharam Top Commenter CEO & Founder at Desinle

the BOllywood story unfolding here...nice... Reply Like Subscribe 35 minutes ago Eric Bahn Stanford If you leave, let us know where you go. Love your writing. Reply Like Subscribe 34 minutes ago Jordan Graham Business Development Associate at BioEnterprise link's dead, alas Reply Like 6 minutes ago

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Yes, Of Course Ill Resign Unless Mike Arrington Chooses His Successor | TechCrunch

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Guanzhi Ma University of Alberta This is why TechCrunch is so awesome. Reply Like Subscribe 36 minutes ago Martin Schmidler University of Vienna Agreed on every word you wrote. Reply Like Subscribe 31 minutes ago Peter Zakin New York, New York Paul Carr is the man. Reply Like Subscribe 33 minutes ago Kumar Vamsi Los Angeles, California ef yeah! Reply Like Subscribe 36 minutes ago View 11 more
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