Veteran Forbes reporter Alex Konrad recently joined a growing list of tech reporters taking their talents independent. Among them: Eric Newcomer, who brings in $2M annually at Newcomer; Alex Kantrowitz, who started Big Technology; and Casey Newton, whose Platformer media outfit has ~200K subscribers.
They’re following what’s been a successful playbook — The Information and Axios both began as personal projects from former mainstream reporters — but are acting as solo voices (for now, at least) and using newer self-publishing platforms along with other content formats to give readers a more personal relationship (and POV) than they could reporting for traditional outlets.
With the independence to pursue stories on hyper-niche markets and topics they (not their editors/publishers) believe are valuable, many are quickly gaining influence.
This is a signal for tech startups and growth-stage companies who are finding more hurdles breaking into national outlets — where diminishing newsrooms are prioritizing public companies, tech giants, policy and the economy — and even trade media also facing resource issues.
We are talking a lot about this at SHIFT of late … how we help clients reach and resonate with their audiences when engaging business press is as challenging as it’s ever been.
The current answer is blended PR programs that combine the power of diversified earned media and shared content. Here’s what that looks like:
Niche & New Media Storytelling
Get deliberate about newsletters, podcasts, etc. Coverage and community engagement in them humanizes a brand, grows its executives’ profiles, can support narratives that aren’t fit for traditional outlets and often comes with impactful social media exposure. Many offer reasonable pricing on worthwhile paid media/sponsorships, especially compared to the astronomical rates charged by business press.
I wrote about this in our 2025 predictions post at SHIFT as did the head of marketing at Bain Capital Ventures, Allison Braley, a great communications thought leader on LinkedIn herself.
Founder/Executive-led Storytelling
Champion your own vision, stories and insights. CEOs (and those supporting them) are generating real momentum doing their own bidding on LinkedIn (plus podcasts/newsletters, to a degree). Fortune summed it up well, declaring that “social media is reshaping leadership.”
Even though you retain total control over what’s posted, building and resonating with your audience requires 1) intentionality, aka it’s guided by an objective, strategy, ownable narrative and conversation pillars and 2) powerful delivery, whether through a trademark style or very compelling POVs/copywriting.
Modernizing Traditional Media Strategies
Yes, I’ve just spent time lauding the emergence of new media and direct channels for PR. Yes, trust in traditional media is waning, by the numbers. That said, earned coverage remains irreplaceable. We see the impact in our program measurement. Also, our clients share the excitement and pings from customers, prospects, investors and partners when coverage hits.
These legacy outlets still retain credibility and influence among decision makers and a reach that most tech companies likely can’t get through owned or new media alone. Reaching traditional media remains a core focus for us at SHIFT, however we (and all other communicators) have had to get more creative to secure it. That means custom-building assets and data for press, upleveling spokespeople's thought leadership and better connecting company stories/POVs to major news events.
Working across all of these channels while understanding their nuances and role in PR strategies, is what will develop strong market positioning and outcomes. Ignore one, old or new, at your own peril.
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
