Whither Ars?

Ars Technica is one of the few tech news sites I read regularly. I can usually count on them to provide interesting articles on relevant topics about current and future technology. They aren’t as hardcore geeky as Tom’s Hardware or Anand Tech, and the articles are more thoughtful and informative than c|net or ZDNet.

At least, they used to be.

Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed the tone of the site has changed. There are new contributors, and pieces from the Old Guard (Stokes, Siracusa, Jade, Fisher) are harder to find. Not that new blood is bad, far from it. But with the new faces came a new style. The headlines are “clever” and have “bite,” while the articles are more “edgy” and “slick.” They are also “shorter” with less “information.”

I suppose this kind of change is inevitable, as Condé Nast works to get some return on its investment.

I could toss out a lot of sardonic hyperbole about the decline of news media, designed mostly to show you how clever I am. But I'll leave that to the professionals.

Instead I’ll just ask where I can find the Internet equivalent of The News Hour?