TechCrunch: Kirkpatrick out, Del Conte in, Kirkpatrick provides research advice

Marshall Kirkpatrick has left his writer position at TechCrunch after six months. He wrote some information on his blog and describes the parting on good terms.  I am a bit disappointed that TC did not post something on their main blog about the change considering what Marshall notes below in terms of stats in how he helped TechCrunch grow rapidly especially seeing as they parted on good terms.

We wish Marshall much success in the future and will certainly continue to read his personal blog. I hope in the future we can collaborate on a project or two.

From his post:

Yesterday was my last day at TechCrunch. It's been a good run but I'm excited to get back into consulting for non profit organizations and startup businesses. This is a post about how I did my research while writing for TechCrunch, written in the belief that the more valuable information a person shares the more likely they are to be hired to share even more information as a consultant.

In six months of writing the majority of the posts there, I helped the site grow from 75,000 subscribers to almost twice that number at its peak last Tuesday. Over the last six months the blog has gone from the 9th most linked to blog on the web to now the 6th most linked to.

Michael Arrington is a larger than life person that clearly deserves the vast majority of the credit for the success that blog has had in the 18 months it's been online, but I'm proud of my time there as well.

As a parting gift for all of us, he wrote an excellent post and a must-read about how he did the research that helped him break stories first. From his post:

The following is a description of my feed reading methodology. It's how I break stories, if not in the first place then into the larger blogosphere. It's a work flow that I believe can be applied in almost any sector. I'm looking forward to helping a variety of people learn to use these tools so they can be put to use for more than just bloggers blogging about the blogosphere.

Michael Arrington has brought in Natali Del Conte as the new TechCrunch writer. Michael notes that she  was most recently a reporter for PC Magazine, and a regular on John Dvorak’s Cranky Geeks show. From what I can tell from several searches, she has been writing for several years. I hope she can bring a female POV to her columns. I did not see that from her first two writeups, but that could be first day jitters. :)

We wish her the best of luck in her new role!