Tiernan Ray, leading tech editor and journalist joins us as our special guest this week on the ConnectThe2 podcast. Tiernan has been covering tech stocks and the financial markets since 1994. He was the resident technology blogger and columnist for Barron’s magazine, and his work has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, ZDnet, Capital Market Labs and The New York Times. In this episode, we learn about his take on artificial intelligence, debunking myths and social media.
Here are the biggest takeaways from our conversation. If you like what you’re reading be sure to listen to the whole episode linked at the bottom of this page.
The Technology Newsletter…
Tiernan recently launched The Technology Newsletter because he realized there was a dearth of content covering the trends and investments of smaller tech companies–usually with a market value below $100 billion. Tiernan explains that most financial tech sites cover names in the business that are guarantee draws, so publications often look at stocks that are the most widely held like Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. Tiernan’s goal is to provide journalism that is interesting and useful for those individual stock investors that love the smaller companies and want an updated view into technology trends.
Reporting style…
We learn from Tiernan that his approach to journalism involves letting go of his own ideas about what the story is. He finds that his best interviews occur when he is focused on finding out what the interviewee is interested in. This may sound obvious, but it can be a challenge to listen to what people have to say rather than bringing up our own preconceived notions. Tiernan provides a great example of this when he interviewed Don Valentine, venture capitalist and founder of Sequoia Capital. You can listen to the full story at minute 28.
Email is best… Tiernan appreciates an organized inbox. His preferred method of correspondence with other business professionals is through email so that he can find any important work-related emails right away and in one location. So, PR folks – if you’re contacting Tiernan for a story, skip the instant messaging, texting, and tweeting and send him a good old-fashioned email. His anxiety thanks you.