Exactly one year ago we launched BetaKit to be a new source of emerging technology news, and a way to provide digital strategists, marketers, and executives with emerging tech trend research through BetaKit Insights. We outlined the idea behind BetaKit in a manifesto, but it can be summed up in a few sentences. We felt the technology journalism landscape was changing, with some publications moving to more of a social media focus, some going through periods of transition due to acquisitions and staff changes, and some increasingly just copy and pasting press releases or putting together slide shows to get as many eyeballs as possible. Not to mention what we felt was a culture of snark, and a lack of journalistic reporting.
Since launching last year, I’m proud to say that we’ve grown BetaKit into a recognizable brand in the tech journalism space, while also showing that advertising isn’t the only way to monetize an online publication. We’ve formed partnerships with the Pulse and News360 newsreaders, were one of the sources selected for the Washington Post Social Reader, and made it to number 32 on the Techmeme leaderboard (an extremely competitive place to be, hence why the position varies widely). Our coverage has included contributions from writers in Berlin, Silicon Valley, New York City, and Paris, and we’ve had several cycles of editorial interns who were passionate about technology. We’ve covered big news stories, like Instagram’s acquisition by Facebook, but also taken a deeper look at the technology trends that are changing the ways consumers act and businesses operate.
In August 2012 we launched Insights to help give businesses a glimpse into why the changing technology landscape matters to their business. We’ve covered trends like influencer targeting, mobile payments, and ambient location technology, highlighting the major players in the space, and the up-and-coming startups sure to disrupt over the next year.
While BetaKit’s founder Sarah Prevette has moved on to start her next company, our team and the larger team at Postmedia is committed to making BetaKit bigger and better in 2013. That starts with you, the reader. First of all thank you to everyone who has read BetaKit over the last year, whether once or every day, because your comments and emails have validated that there is a place for this type of publication in the technology media landscape. Thank you to the founders and PR companies who have reached out to us with your news – we will continue to try to get back to every email. And thank you to our team of contributors for making BetaKit what it is today, especially Darrell, who was instrumental in the first six months, and Humayun, our full-time writer now.
BetaKit will never publish as many articles as TechCrunch, or do gadget reviews like The Verge, or write about Apple, Google, and Facebook like AllThingsD. We respect the other publications in our space and believe every single one has a place with readers – we hope our place is to provide a journalistic take on what’s making startup headlines, and do it in a way that gives a deeper take on the news of the day.
While we’ve shaped the editorial focus over the last year, we want to make sure we’re publishing what you want to read. So we’re opening it up to our readers: what do you want to see more of? What do you want to see less of? What could we be doing better? Please drop me a note at erin@betakit.com or leave a comment on this post, and we’ll take everyone’s suggestions into consideration as we look to the next year.
Thanks for reading!
