Passion Project: What The Verge and Joshua Toplosky Taught Me About Content Success

I do not know Joshua Topolsky. But I feel like I should—know him, that is. Thanks to the Internet, I end up feeling that way about a lot of people I’ll probably never meet.

Take Josh (Do his friends call him that?), for example. I know that he is or was a drummer in a band in Brooklyn. I know that he sometimes goes by the stage name Joshua Ryan. He wears dark-rimmed glasses. Is preferential to sweaters and blazers. Has released an album called “Pistolwhip,” which sounds dangerous and, having spent some time in Brooklyn recently, more punky, I imagine, than it probably is.

I also know Josh as editor-in-chief of the The Verge, the gutsy, occasionally irreverent tech news startup he founded alongside fellow castoffs from AOL’s Endgadget in 2011. If you follow technology—I mean, really follow it—The Verge is as good a place as there is online to geek out over the latest Apple iOS or debate the finer points of the umpteenth incarnation of SimCity—it’s so freaking realistic, you won’t even believe it! 

But The Verge is more than just a tech site for tech fan boys (and girls). By all accounts, its close-knit band of writers and editors, agree with them or not, take their craft seriously. When AdWeek asked Topolsky to weigh in on his organization’s success—the site topped more than 2 million visitors in a single day last year, thanks in large part to a pre-release story about the iPhone 5—the E-I-C gave a shout out to his staff.

“It all really comes down to passion,” he told reporter Charlie Warzel. “The people that work here—the sales, editorial, and product teams—they’re also the viewers of our content and if we build it we know it will be really great because we really, truly do care.”

That’s just about the highest compliment an editor can pay his staff. And it brings to light an important truth about the success, or failure, of content in the age of social media: Should publishers seek to differentiate themselves from the competition—the vast proliferation of blogs and online news magazines in recent years ensures readers have no shortage of choices—the best, and perhaps only way to ensure content stands apart is to pursue it with the care and vigor of a true passion project.

Sounds good—in theory. But this is work we’re talking about. You can’t manufacture passion.

No, but if you’re like Topolsky, you can find talent that exudes it.

Example: When former CNET Senior Writer Greg Sandoval quit his job in January, claiming the publication’s parent company, CBS, refused to let its editors tap The Hopper, a digital set-top box that enables Dish Network subscribers to watch television programs on multiple devices, as the best product at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Topolsky covered the dust up on his site, noting that CBS was engaged in a court battle with Dish over the product’s legality, specifically its ability to let viewers “skip past” commercials.

Despite attempts by CBS to categorize the move as an exception to the rule in light of pending legal concerns about the product, Sandoval announced his resignation on Twitter, saying he was no longer confident “that CBS is committed to editorial independence.” (Note: CES organizers subsequently cut ties with CNET, a show sponsor, and named The Hopper “Best in Show.”)

His new job: working for Topolsky at The Verge. New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter cited a blog post by Sandoval about his new gig, in which the tech writer said he received “a written guarantee from management that nobody from the business side of the company will ever have any authority over my stories.”

In one fell swoop, Topolsky broke a controversial and ultimately scathing story that drew national attention to his young site and recruited a voice whose passion and commitment to his tradecraft closely mirrors his own. Not bad for a day’s work.

OK. But I don’t work for a startup. Corporate says there is no room in the budget to hire new staff. And I’m overworked as is.

Fair. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to stand out.

Example: At The Verge, Topolsky often writes bylined articles that appear alongside his staff. He also actively monitors social media and other outlets to see how his publication’s content is being shared and received by readers online. If he sees something he likes, or doesn’t, he’ll weigh in.

When The Huffington Post published a blurb that linked to an original Verge story about the history of American arcade games, Topolsky publicly condemned the move on Twitter, accusing editors at the HuffPo of “scraping” his content, and requesting that it remove the post.

Wait. Did you say scraping?

Ugh. Scraping is nasty Internet parlance that refers to the act of repurposing another’s content in an attempt to capitalize on the search traffic. Though the offending site typically still gives credit to the original publisher, it often does so quietly, which sometimes misleads readers about the origin of the content.

Though there is nothing technically illegal about it, sites, particularly small sites like The Verge, despise the practice. Because search engines often prioritize the scraped content featured on the higher trafficked site—in this case, The Huffington Post—above the original, sending searchers to the repurposed version first.

So, what happened?

After a colorful exchange between Topolsky, the HuffPo editor who published the piece and a few others (My colleague Jimmy Daly chronicles the entire spat in a Tumblr here), the HuffPo, which denied any intention to divert search traffic away from The Verge and said it simply wanted to share the story with its readership, shortened the blurb to include less of the publication’s original content, while continuing to link its readers to the story.

Are you saying we shouldn’t share content we find elsewhere?

Not at all. Content curation, and not content scraping, is a practice that’s been supported on this blog. When you look at the choices readers have today, it’s ridiculous to think that yours is the only site producing worthwhile content. My advice: Find ways to inform the conversation, don’t try to own it. But take heed: As Topolsky’s conflict with the HuffPo demonstrates, there’s a right and a wrong way to do this.

The right way: Rewrite the headline completely. Write a short explanation that puts the content in context for your audience and adds to the debate. Give credit and proper attribution to the original publisher. Make sure it’s clear to the reader where the content is from.

I doubt I’ll ever meet Joshua Topolsky. But I don’t have to know him personally to know what he’s about.

Pack enough passion into your content, and you can bet it won’t be long before your readers say the same about you.

[Image: nan palmero]