On the Subject of Writing for People You Work for...

Our Yahoo show Tech Ticker launched just as the whole Microsoft takeover drama was unfolding. It was an odd position for everyone. Henry Blodget, one of my New York co-hosts, was the guy who broke the story about all those layoffs and was spotted on the Yahoo campus the next day. I am the only reporter who works at Yahoo HQ, and this isn't my only reporting gig. I was on NPR mouthing off about the deal days before launch. And Yahoo? Well, the company was fighting for its life and had just given a group of journalists their own huge forum to criticism them: Yahoo Finance.

There are some rules and hiccups, and a few tantrums (by me), but mostly Yahoo has been incredibly supportive of our efforts. Apparently, more open than the Wall Street Journal.

I was pretty shocked when I read this the other day. Are "non disparagement clauses" standard in journalism? Cause it seems kind of counter to the whole institution? Unclear in this post is whether the outgoing management have them as part of their negotiated package or it's staff wide. Anyone know?

This whole topic of the demise of newspapers could be it's own blog, but this just seems another example. A lot of entrepreneurs made fun of me for going to a "has been" like Yahoo, but compare it to newspapers! It makes money (lots of it!), is growing (not Google, but certainly not Knight Ridder!), and apparently understands journalistic freedoms more than the Journal's new overlords. (Extra bonus: free lattes!)

For the record, I've never been a huge Rupert basher. I actually think he's one of the few people in old media who gets the Internet. Still, it's surreal that for years I dreamed of working for the Journal, and today I'm quite happy to be at Yahoo instead-- even if we might work for our own "evil" overlords soon!!

[I put evil in quotes simply to cover my a** once we do get bought and someone reads this...."I meant evil, like, you know how everyone in the Valley calls you the evil empire...not ME...but everyone else. Aaron Task for instance...he says it ALL the time..."]