Our Lady of Earnest Apologies?

Oh Miss Asha, why have you gotten yourself into this mess? We're still not sure what you did for the tech hedge fund or whatever it was that you worked for, and what really qualifies you to be a tech expert, but you seem likeable enough, regardless of your lack of professional gravitas. Your humble apology posted today makes us almost feel bad for you. But, um, when you say in your post that there needed to be transparency, actually BEING transparent right then and there could go a long way in remedying that. You did no such thing. Oh, well. Live and learn?

Here's the post, bunnies:

RB: Meghan, Jan 14, 11:39am

I’ve avoided writing about the back end of our business for quite some time. My thinking initially was that running a website is like a stage performance and all the activity behind the scenes needed to just that— behind the scenes. After reading Julia’s blog post, I now realize that it may be beneficial to start talking about all that goes into running a startup. This is a particularly different kind of a startup because we are not just founders we are the content providers, dead set on turning NS into a network of many besides the three of us. Creating a community takes time, creating decent content takes time, creating the next site build outs takes time, all of which is a balance we’re still trying to manage.

We got slammed for the CES coverage, and I will take the blame for it. First of all, this was my first time covering a tech event with the girls and preset deliverable for sponsorship; normally I’m on my own with the freedom to blog tech all day long. That was not the case last week; I literally had an hour the last day of CES to check out the new product launches. Our shoots went longer than expected, both day and night. Call me naive, but I really had no idea that making 4 edited & 6 unedited videos would take so much time. It was like shooting 6 commercials in the span of 4 days. That being said, I’m looking forward to the end product and now know how I’d prepare for the situation in the future.

Guys, I’m really sorry, I let you down and I know it. There were so many parts of the equation that needed clarification; first off I should have explained CES to all the novices. I can’t imagine how annoyed some of you were with the lack of details on what exactly is the Consumer Electronics Show and why we were there.

Another issue that needed clarification was the CES Superlative site, it was put up as a way to get our readers involved in thinking about tech in an edgier more creative way. It was created for everyone, even if you were not at the event. My goal was to provoke a thoughtful discussion on which gadgets fit each category and why. Surprisingly, I did get some insightful submissions (I’ll post a little later), but I think next time we create a submission site we must provide more guidelines and examples.

My last issue with CES is transparency, we needed to explain our involvement and degree of participation (were we attending as bloggers, participants, paid reps). Fact is, I think we went to the conference for a multitude of reasons that weren’t entirely clear until we arrived. I’m not complaining, I think even with all the disappointment, it was a huge learning experience on what we can handle and what we can’t. The three of us are very capable, very driven women, but sometimes we promise more than we can deliver. In the past, I used to overextend myself with college courses and jobs until I burnt out. I don’t want to do this with NS, so next time it’s important to set realistic goals on coverage to my readers. I often have delusions of grandeur to be as informative and timely as an Engadget, Gizmodo, and TechCrunch, I must remind myself that these tech sites are staffed with way more than just one person. The bloggers on these websites are focused on one thing— blogging, which for me is not the case.

My last priority (which you’d think, should be my first priority) has been blogging, I’ve been preoccupied on how we can make enough money to build upon our following. I enjoy the backend, but it’s often hard to switch gears. As far as content is concerned, I’m still searching for my pace and beat, I’ll hit my stride sometime, but for now it’s a journey where all I can do is work harder. We have come so far, but still have a very long way to go, we’re learning from our mistakes, my main hope is that you too learn from our missteps, so you too can gain insight into your own life.