There are countless tech sites out there that we all keep up with, and it's no secret that it's an increasingly competitive landscape when it comes to vying for readership. Keeping the lights on and the stories flowing takes a lot of time, effort, and finances, and it seems that the esteemed and legendary tech site AnandTech is the latest casualty in the technology journalism space to take the hit. In a final post, Editor-in-Chief Ryan Smith announced the site was shutting its doors for good.
AnandTech was one of the true technically-focused sites out there, making sure to cover the most in-depth and technical aspects of the hardware that powers devices today. Smith has said that all of the site's posts that have been up since its creation will remain online indefinitely, and that its forums are being kept active for the foreseeable future. Sister site of AnandTech, Tom's Hardware, will continue to operate and some of AnandTech's staff have already made the switch.
An end of an era
Technical reporting can be a hard sell
These days, in-depth and technical reporting can be a hard sell to the masses, and it felt as if AnandTech managed to thrive in a niche where many other sites weren't necessarily able to. The site also produced some writers who have gone on to become a massive influence in the technology space, such as Dr. Ian Cutress of TechTechPotato and Andrei Frumusanu, who now works as a Principal Engineer at Qualcomm.
As Smith also notes, "the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was," which essentially meant that the site would either need to change and dilute its efforts, or wrap up and pass the torch to the "next generation of tech journalists." They chose the latter, opting to honor everything that AnandTech has stood for up until now. AnandTech was as much propped up by readers of the site as it was by its staff members.
In closing, Smith leaves us with a quote from the site's original founder, Anand. "I don't believe the web needs to be academic reporting or sensationalist garbage — as long as there's a balance, I'm happy."
