“If you ignore the imperative to engage people and make them interested in what you’re doing, then the whole thing becomes self-indulgent and boring, and therefore inconsequential.
“One shouldn’t be entertaining for its own sake. But it’s necessary to get people into the door, so that your serious journalism isn’t just good but — as important — ‘heard.’
“You have to do things to make people want to spend their finite time reading what you’ve written instead of all the other shit they can be doing on the Internet.
—Glenn Greenwald
“The trick has always been — whether it’s covering tech news, economic news, or anything else — to cover it in a way that’s smart enough so that people in the industry will appreciate it, but also enthusiastically enough so that people outside will find it compelling. Billions of dollars are made and lost every single day in the market, so there’s absolutely no reason why it can’t be a thrilling thing to follow, just as if you were following sports.”
—Joe Weisenthal
Addendum (7/28/2015):
“Yes, we believe that a partner-track attorney can be passionate about world affairs and celebrity gossip. On the same day. During the same coffee break. And there is nothing wrong with that.”
—Bryan Goldberg
Addendum (7/29/2015):
“Have you heard me talk about the Paris cafe? You go to a cafe and you bring a copy of Sartre and Le Monde. There’s a cute dog under the table next to you. So after you read the news and the philosophy, you may pet the dog, flirt with someone at another table, and talk about some trivial gossip. All these things are part of being human. You don’t become stupid when you turn away from the philosophy and pet the dog. People are complex and multifaceted. When you talk to people who say it dumbs down the audience to have cute animals, the truth is nobody has a choice: because Facebook and Twitter are perfect Paris cafes.”
—Jonah Peretti
