NYT to Business Week & Gotham Books: Buy a Dictionary, Get a Clue
By DONNA BOGATIN • Jul 27th, 2008 • Category: BIG PICTUREGotham Books underscores the “bloggers fueling (Web 2.0) hype” in the “product description“ of Sarah Lacy penned, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” without a tinge of irony, despite blogger Lacy herself “talking up at every opportunity” her scoring of a few high-profile chummy Silicon Valley interviews, “as if she herself had created the next YouYube,” according to The New York Times’ Katie Hefner recounting of the manufactured “drum roll” leading up to publication.
Hafner’s ridicule of “starry-eyed Lacy‘s disjointed grab bag of gossip,” is not surprising: Lacy’s public writings are also a hodge podge of celebrity fawning, pretentious musings and seemingly unresearched conclusions.
In April, I rebutted Lacy’s “move along” retort in her misguided “Twitter Raises $20 M? That’s News, Why?” post. SEE “Venture Capital Rules? NO! Bootstrap Startups Do!”
The notion that Internet innovation is all tied up in a handful of trendy, well-connected Web 2.0 power plays that go by the names of Slide, Ning, Facebook, is hogwash, and it ignores the reality of an entrepreneurial engine that fuels our entire economy: Home-based, sole proprietors.
The idea that a Lacy “interview” is a rite of passage for any self-respecting Web power player is also Web 2.0 dreaming. Nevertheless, Lacy chastised the mighty Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com for ignoring her, in Business Week earlier this month:
Sarah Lacy: Rumors have been rife for much of the last year that the CEO—who spends most of his year at his estate in Kona, Hawaii—is ready to sell while the company is flying high. I’d love to ask him about it personally, but the once press-adoring Benioff has turned camera shy. Literally. I’ve had him booked on my Yahoo show, half a dozen times only to have him cancel at the last minute each time. Perhaps even the on-demand evangelist is feeling a bit of founder fatigue.
Just as the New York Times’ Hafner notes “Lacy has a tendency to throw out numbers in too cavalier a fashion,” her Salesforce “fatigue” diagnosis is self-serving and unsubstantiated.
Hafner is particularly (non) amused by Lacy’s cavalier use of the English language, and facts, suggesting,” everything happens so quickly in Silicon Valley that perhaps there is no time to write a proper sentence.”
Perhaps, BUT it is the ultimate responsibility of editors and publishers to ensure the integrity of all written words. The New York Times’ critique of Lacy’s work suggests that both Gotham Books and Business Week have failed at their jobs:
Katie Hafner: Lacy’s book is an outgrowth of an article she wrote for BusinessWeek in 2006. The unfortunate headline on the cover — “How This Kid Made $60 Million in 18 Months” — proved an embarrassment to the magazine. As it turns out, the $60 million referred to the estimated value of Rose’s stake in the company. He didn’t make 60 million of anything, and until the company is sold or goes public, the $60 million in question is as good as Monopoly money.
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DONNA BOGATIN is the Founder & CEO of STARTUP ALPHA
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