As Editor-in-Chief of Digital Trends, Jeremy Kaplan’s job is “keeping the site awesome.” And he has – 20 million readers visit every month for tech news and reviews that explain technology simply and clearly without dumbing it down.
How can you get your company into this top-tier tech outlet? I asked Jeremy that, and his answer is both simple and incredibly difficult to pull off. Here’s what he said:
“So what makes for a good story? The answer is easy, but getting there is the challenge: the unexpected.
Too much tech is boring and dry, and that spans everything from the products to the news articles about them, meaning writers are just as responsible for dry content as manufacturers. Sure, you can claim that your new iPhone case changes the game, but does it really? Let’s be honest here, is it unexpected? Is it interesting? Is it newsworthy? Tech writers need to work extra hard to battle the humdrum – mainstream media finds the stuff geeks like snoozeworthy. How do we dress it up to make it engaging and exciting?
Juxtaposition is one way, and it’s not just saying that the iPhone case is a “game changer” or similar nonsense. It’s actually making a product that’s different: Is it made of Jell-O? Or shaped like a rubber ducky? That’s interesting. Curvier than Kate Upton? I’ll bite.
That said, big names move the needle, meaning Kate Upton (Yes, again. Leave me alone.) and the iPhone and Google and Microsoft. Anything a massive public company like that does is interesting. But smaller companies do more intriguing things these days, in my eyes anyway, and let us take a fresh tack on a story that might otherwise be dull.
Sure, everyone wants to rewrite the smart home industry; lightbulbs are a great example. We all know that the incandescent bulb is dying, and that CFL and LED is the future. What else can you tell me? Is one company going against the grain and bringing back the incandescent? (Why would you do that? I dunno. It’s an example.) Or betting big on halogen bulbs? Or making the walls glow so we don’t need lightbulbs at all? Free idea: The connected home of the future will have glowing walls.
It’s that sort of stuff that makes things interesting, that gets everyone interested, not just geeks like me.”