Gawker Boss Nick Denton, Frequent IM Interview Subject, Explains What He Has Against E-Mail Interviews

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:54:39 -0400

AIM IM with [NICK DENTON]
7:35 PM
[THEMEDIAMOB] May I briefly interview you about something?
[NICK DENTON] sure
[NICK DENTON] well, depending
[THEMEDIAMOB] Did you do the Valleywag post about the NYT submitting questions to Google via e-mail?
[NICK DENTON] yep
[NICK DENTON] well, it came via a tip
[NICK DENTON] but I wrote it up, yes
[THEMEDIAMOB] But you're not that crazy about the face-to-face interview yourself, right?
[NICK DENTON] well, I don't mind IM -- which is how we're speaking now -- and I don't remember asking you to submit your questions!
[THEMEDIAMOB] Isn't IM just sort of a hight-speed way of getting questions pre-submitted? Or is it the routing of the questions through a flack that makes the difference?
7:40 PM
[NICK DENTON] Unfortunately, I don't have the power that Google has.
[NICK DENTON] So I couldn't pre-vet questions, even I wanted!
[NICK DENTON] Anyway, a publisher, moonlighting as a gossip hound, writing about the press relations between two giant companies that also have a complex business relationship -- the conflicts boggle the mind.
[THEMEDIAMOB] And the New York Times press office itself routinely asks for questions in writing.
7:45 PM
[NICK DENTON] and I need to do my last post of the day, and a screengrab of this IM chat seems like an easy win
[NICK DENTON] how meta is that!
[THEMEDIAMOB] Still, I note that you were able to get away with not quite answering my question about the difference between IM and e-mail questions.
[THEMEDIAMOB] I was going to put it on the blog myself.
[NICK DENTON] okay, race you!
[THEMEDIAMOB] You have the technological advantage.

UPDATE: Low-graphics wins! Valleywag posts at 8:03 p.m., 9 minutes after the Media Mob.

Observer » Gawker Boss Nick Denton, Frequent IM Interview Subject, Explains What He Has Against E-Mail Interviews

Gawker Boss Nick Denton, Frequent IM Interview Subject, Explains What He Has Against E-Mail Interviews