Whoa, can we finally catch our breath? Todd Bishop and I have been covering the technology beat around these parts for a long time, and neither of us has bumped into an October quite like the one we just experienced.
Things took an unexpected turn on the afternoon of October 5th when a TV news reporter called to ask if I could go on the air to talk about the death of Steve Jobs. It was the first I’d heard that the legendary leader of Apple had passed away.
I promptly hung up, and got to work on a post marking his death. It would be one of more than 20 stories that GeekWire produced about Jobs during the month, including Todd’s touching on-the-scene reports and video from the makeshift memorial that arose at Seattle’s University Village Apple store.
For me, those reports highlighted something that’s at the core of GeekWire. We don’t just sit around in our cubicles. We go out and find news, reporting on what’s occurring and trying to offer insight on the things that matter to people who not only work in the industry but to those who are interested in the way technology is shaping our lives.
As much as we like to bring big technology stories home to Seattle, nothing gets us fired up as much as finding something cool that no one has written about before, and then telling the world about it.
That happened a lot in October. From the unmasking of the mysterious Amazon lockers at 7-Eleven to the Post-it Wars to weird and unusual Microsoft patents, we’ve tried hard to get beyond the press release journalism and mindless aggregation that plagues so many news sites these days.
It’s not always easy. And we’re not always successful. But that’s the kind of reporting we like to do. And we think that type of content — along with analysis from GeekWire columnists Frank Catalano, Monica Guzman and our slate of regular contributors — is what people actually want to consume.
This approach has paid off. GeekWire is now a top 20 technology news site in the country, according to TechMeme. And, during the month of October, the GeekWire readership reached levels that Todd and I have never experienced before in our careers. (Full list of the top 10 stories of the month below).
We’re humbled and honored that so many of you have decided to spend your time with GeekWire, reading, commenting, offering guest posts and attending our events.
There’s certainly no shortage of choices when it comes to technology news, and we want to respect your time in a world that seems to be moving at a faster and faster pace.
We’re just eight months old, but the traffic, engagement and community support for GeekWire has exceeded our expectations. We had 300 people at the GeekWire Meetup last week, and we’re expecting even more for our big gala on December 8th where we’ll be celebrating the top newsmakers of the year and some very special tech leaders who give back to the community.
We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re feeling good. Really good.
All of that said, I’ve started taking a page out of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ playbook who regularly notes at the end of his annual shareholder letter that “it’s still Day 1.”
Without further ado, here are the top 10 stories of the month on GeekWire with Tweet and comment counts. Which one was your favorite?
1.) “The future is amazing, and Microsoft has the video to prove it” (134 comments, 809 Tweets).
2.) “Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated” (29 comments, 583 Tweets).
3.) “How Valve experiments with the economics of video games” (15 comments, 450 Tweets)
4.) “Top 10 reasons why Darth Vader was an amazing product manager” (20 comments, 962 Tweets)
5.) “How Carly screwed up AT&T’s $39B T-Mobile acquisition” (9 comments, 21 Tweets)
6.) “Microsoft touts Kinect at tiny hut in shadow of Apple Store” (15 comments, 41 Tweets)
7.) “Microsoft YouTube channel hacked” (22 comments, 124 Tweets)
8.) “Microsoft ‘HoloDesk’ project takes us closer to Star Trek” (6 comments, 181 Tweets)
9.) “Exclusive: Hands-on with Amazon Locker, now working” (17 comments, 87 Tweets)
10.) “Tech: The worst IPOs of 2011” (1 comment, 91 Tweets)
