How to Build a Media Company with Alex Wilhelm of TechCrunch

Indie Hackers

Summary

Alex Wilhelm discusses his extensive career in media, covering his experiences building content organizations from scratch at Mattermark and Crunchbase News. He provides a candid look at the challenges of balancing journalistic integrity with corporate goals, the importance of data-driven storytelling, and why consistency and grit are the primary drivers for long-term audience growth. Wilhelm shares his practical philosophy on how to treat a media property as a brand rather than just a blog, emphasizing that while there are no 'hacks' to success, there are proven techniques for building a sustainable, trustworthy, and authoritative voice in the tech and startup ecosystem.

Chapters

  1. 0:00Building a Media Company
  2. 5:34Strategic Content and Teams
  3. 12:04Growth and Audience Engagement
  4. 21:43Scaling Crunchbase News
  5. 34:03Social Media and Distribution
  6. 45:34Advanced Reporting Techniques
  7. 56:56Journalism in Corporate Environments
  8. 1:04:04Media Strategy and News Hooks
  9. 1:07:15Tips for Aspiring Writers

Topics covered

  • Journalistic Integrity
  • Content Regularity

+4 more topics (full content when you follow the channel)

Transcript excerpt

i know you've had like at least two stents where you basically needed to build a media organization from the ground up both at mattermark and crunchbase news and it seems like they had two very different outcomes so i'm curious you know when you went to matamarc what was going through your head what was your mandate and how did you how did you approach it going to metalmark was interesting it's it's a little bit of a personal story more than a work story i was at techcrunch before mattermark and i had a little bit of a drinking and so i thought that i was miserable in problem my job it turns out i was just miserable in life so i quit tc i went to matter mark and the idea was you know like you said it was to build a little media company um led by me kind of focus on my kind of financial startup the venture capital type stuff uh kind of my bread and butter that i've written about for a whi…