Sean Parker's New Blog Sounds a Little Bit Like TechCrunch

Web futurist, Spotify champion and former Facebook president Sean Parker is getting into the blogging business. "Parker said his venture will be something like [Fred Wilson's A VC blog] but with 'more of a monthly essay thing with daily commentary and a couple very smart young writers who will be doing follow-up on the long form pieces that I write,'" reports Ryan Tate at Gawker. "Given the recent implosion of TechCrunch, a favorite of real and imagined Silicon Valley power players, that sounds like a smart idea, assuming 'undisciplined' Parker can stay focused on the venture."

Since Tate brought it up we can't help but wonder if the "daily commentary" Parker mentions will amount to breaking scoops about and weighing in on the winners and losers in the startup scene, a craft that Michael Arrington honed at TechCrunch. Of course, Parker and Arrington have arrived at blogging from very different angles. Arrington told Wired in a 2007 profile that he started blogging because "half [his] day was spent researching old startups" and "figured at the very least [he'd] use it as a networking tool." Over time, TechCrunch became Arrington's megaphone for sharing his opinion about not only startups but also the tech industry in general.

We won't know how closely Parker's blog will borrow from the TechCrunch model like until we see it, but we do know he's not planning on doing much gossiping. "I'm getting ready to launch a blog so that—like you guys at Gawker—I can stand on my soapbox and waste everyone's time with my useless thoughts. Only I suspect that my thoughts will be less useless and definitely less mean spirited and obnoxious than yours."