Why Digg's quiet CEO is suddenly talking
NICK DOUGLAS — The general geek public associates one name with Digg: Kevin Rose. He's the social site's public face, and no wonder: he spent years as a TV show co-host, and he's the younger and edgier of Digg's two co-founders. So in the aftermath of Digg's decision to let users illegally publish a code, why is his partner and CEO Jay Adelson giving all the interviews? He's the one who talked to the New York Times, Fortune, Wired News, and BusinessWeek. Because they got funneled through the same PR firm that I did.
I sent this to Rose and Adelson (both of whom I've met; I'm a friend of Rose).
Great to hear about your decision re: HD-DVD. Writing yet another history of the situation. Would love to hear from you today about how you plan to keep Digg from getting shut down by DMCA takedowns, and how you plan to defend against any lawsuits.
Here's what I got back:
My name is Marcus Tolero and I'm with K/F Communications, P.R. Firm to Digg.com, in San Francisco. We understand that you want to conduct an interview with Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg.com.
Of course, the boring responsible thing is to go talk to Jay. (And I tried but haven't heard back. They must've discovered it was just a blogger.) That's also the rather pointless thing — Kevin was always the site's front man before, so why is Jay suddenly the best source?
Because Jay's the responsible one. Kevin's the one who posted an end-is-nigh blog entry saying "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying." (Also, Kevin was in LA when this went down.) Apparently the PR firm decided Jay was the safer founder to front. And yes, he gave solid answers to all the outlets above. But there's something missing. Kevin Rose, who gives raw honest takes on Digg news every week on his show Diggnation, could give the same real, un-PR-approved answers here. And that's what Digg's handlers don't want.
And so everyone gets their interview with Jay. Of course, two hours after Fortune posted their interview, Wired posted their own and called it an "exclusive." Sorry Wired, but Jay's talking to everyone. Well, except me.