Tech Journalist’s “Inside Sources” Are Actually Eavesdropped Conversations
SIGHTGLASS COFFEE, SAN FRANCISCO — Sipping a coffee while pretending to be engrossed in the contents of his laptop screen, tech journalist Vishesh Ramachandran is busily at work — eavesdropping. Mr. Ramachandran, who works for Buzzfeed, frequently publishes stories that cite “inside sources” or “a person familiar to the matter.” But most of these privileged sources are actually overheard conversations at coffee shops.
Tech journalists like Mr. Ramachandran have learned to recognize the behavioral patterns of tech workers. “Philz has a fair amount of Dropbox workers, along with people coming on or off the Caltrain. Blue Bottle attracts Twitter, Square, and Uber. Sightglass is a mix of everyone, but there’s a significant Pinterest and Airbnb contingent,” he told us.
In the morning, he’s likely to eavesdrop on business and social meetings. In the afternoon, he overhears tech workers conducting one-on-ones. At night, he hangs out at bars and catches conversations between tech workers drunkenly complaining to each other about their companies, their bosses, and their golden handcuffs.
“Last month, there were a bunch of people in Twitter hoodies crowded around a table talking about who was or wasn’t going to be laid off,” said Mr. Ramachandran. “So I wrote an article on impending Twitter layoffs, attributed it to ‘sources familiar to the matter,’ gave it to my editor. And what do you know? A few days later, Twitter announces layoffs.”
Tech companies have recognized the problem and warned employees to keep mum. But to the exasperation of HR departments everywhere, employees still talk to each other outside of work in public. Indeed, part of the reason that tech companies offer perks like free coffee and alcohol is to keep gossip inside their offices, where tech journalists can’t overhear them.
“Most of my job is to find and repost articles from other people with a slightly reworded summary and minimal fact-checking, so I can get most of that work done with the free wifi. Plus, I get to hang out with journalists from other companies who are also chasing leads.” Mr. Ramachandran pointed out a few other people in Sightglass. “There’s Dan from Techcrunch, Lydia from Vox at the other table, and Chang from Gawker. Everybody does it.”
“Besides, we’re tech journalists. It’s not like we’re going to be winning a Pulitzer any time soon.”
