July 22, 2025 • 24 mins
Annie Saunders has been a tech journalist for several years now, but her diverse career background, local news, commodities, food, had her questioning why we'd even invite her on this show. No need to question yourself, Annie. Generalists make great tech journalists, as is evidenced by the reporting on AI, EV transportation, and climate tech for Morning Brew's Tech Brew, where Annie serves as editor.
She's a lifelong Pittsburgher – seriously, it's the only place she's ever lived or will live, she tells us. Annie told us that her Yinzer dowry, which is a great phrase, was getting Steelers season tickets from her dad after she got married. She grew up 30 miles outside Pittsburgh, ran the school paper at the University of Pittsburgh, and spent five years on the editing desk at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Yinzer, indeed.
Now, aside from Pittsburgh, Annie joined us to talk about the woeful state of local journalism, her vision for Morning Brew, and how her career is her way of fulfilling her late mother's legacy for this episode of Pressing Matters from Big Valley Marketing, the podcast that brings you conversations with the top media and influencers in B2B tech. I'm Dave Reddy, head of Big Valley Marketing's media and influencers practice, and I'm your host.
Through research and good old-fashioned relationship building, we've identified B2B Tech's top 200 media and influencers, including Annie. Here's our chat with Annie. Enjoy. Annie, thanks so much for being on the podcast. Really appreciate your time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dave Reddy (00:00):
Annie Saunders has been a tech journalist for
several years now, but herdiverse career background, local
news, commodities, food, hadher questioning why we'd even
invite her on this show.
No need to question yourself,Annie.
Generalists make great techjournalists, as is evidenced by
the reporting on AI, EVtransportation, and climate tech
(00:20):
for Morning Brew's Tech Brew,where Annie serves as editor.
A lifelong Pittsburgher,Seriously, it's the only place
she's ever lived or will live,she tells us.
Annie told us that her Yinzerdowry, which is a great phrase,
was getting Steelers seasontickets from her dad after she
got married.
She grew up 30 miles outsidePittsburgh, ran the school paper
(00:43):
at the University ofPittsburgh, and spent five years
on the editing desk at thePittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Yinzer, indeed.
Now, aside from Pittsburgh,Annie joined us to talk about
the woeful state of localjournalism, her vision for
Morning Brew, and how her careeris her way of fulfilling her
late mother's legacy for thisepisode of Pressing Matters from
(01:04):
Big Valley Marketing, thepodcast that brings you
conversations with the top mediaand influencers in B2B tech.
I'm Dave Reddy, head of BigValley Marketing's media and
influencers practice, and I'myour host.
Through research and goodold-fashioned relationship
building, We've identified B2BTech's top 200 media and
influencers, including Annie.
Here's our chat with Annie.
(01:25):
Enjoy.
Annie, thanks so much for beingon the podcast.
Really appreciate your time.
Annie Saunders (01:39):
Hi, Dave.
Thanks so much for having me.
Dave Reddy (01:41):
Our pleasure.
Our pleasure.
So let's just jump right intoit.
So you grew up in Pittsburgh ornear Pittsburgh, and you've
been there your entire life.
Annie Saunders (01:49):
Yes.
That's right.
I'm a lifer.
I grew up about 30 minutes eastof the city in a town called
Irwin.
And I moved within the citylimits to go to the University
of Pittsburgh the week after Igraduated from high school.
I was definitely done with asmall town life.
And I've been here ever since.
I started my career at myhometown paper, the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.
(02:09):
And I definitely can't leavenow.
My husband is a member of thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,
which is not a job that can bedone remotely.
No, it can't.
What does he play?
He plays the bass.
Dave Reddy (02:21):
Bass guitar or stand-up bass?
Annie Saunders (02:23):
Stand-up, upright bass.
Dave Reddy (02:27):
That's awesome.
Yeah, no, you can't move.
Now, unless, of course, he getsanother symphony job, and then
you'd have to leave Pittsburghfor the first time.
Annie Saunders (02:34):
They're few and far between.
I think we're here for the longhaul.
Dave Reddy (02:38):
Okay, good.
What do mom and dad do?
I presume they too arePittsburghers.
Annie Saunders (02:42):
Yes, indeed.
They're both from Irwin, thetown I grew up in.
They are not journalists.
My dad is actually a host at arestaurant after spending most
of his career in the carbusiness.
My mother, she died prettyyoung.
She was 42.
I was 16.
I'm sorry.
That's all right.
It's been a long enough timethat I've got some distance from
(03:03):
it.
I can talk about it prettycomfortably.
I don't know that she everreally got an opportunity to
figure out what she wanted todo, but toward the end of her
life, she did start takingclasses at the local community
college in writing andjournalism and was writing for
my even smaller, like the subhometown paper, the, uh, the
Norwin star.
And so she started coveringcouncil meetings and writing a
(03:26):
column.
And that was sort of when I gotthe bug.
Dave Reddy (03:29):
So your inspiration was your mom.
That's nice.
Annie Saunders (03:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think to some extent Idecided on this profession
because I wanted to fulfill whatshe didn't necessarily get a
chance to accomplish.
Dave Reddy (03:40):
That's a, it's a wonderful legacy for you.
When you started writing, um,How young were you?
I remember when I startedwriting, I was writing fake
sports stories after watching...
Well, they weren't fake.
I'd watch a Bruins game.
I'm from Boston.
And I'd write the story formyself just to read it to
myself.
Were you doing things likethat?
Were you writing short stories?
What were you doing?
Annie Saunders (04:01):
I mean, I did a little bit of writing in high
school that I can remember, butI was...
I was and still am sort ofalways interested in editing.
My mom would write her storiesfrom council meetings or she
would write a column and shewould hand it to me to edit
before she gave it to her actualeditor.
No
Dave Reddy (04:19):
kidding.
Annie Saunders (04:20):
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I've always been more of aneditor than a writer.
Dave Reddy (04:24):
My wife was my first editor.
Not that she was my wife, ofcourse.
Annie Saunders (04:28):
It's family.
Dave Reddy (04:29):
Some of our greatest arguments were when we were
first dating and over me, thewriter and her, the editor.
But we're still together.
So to the point about editing,you didn't simply work for your
school paper at the Universityof Pittsburgh.
You ran the darn thing.
Now, when I was in school,after I met my wife, the year
(04:51):
after that, I became the sportseditor.
But we were weekly, and I hadmaybe five writers.
And that was probably more thanI could handle.
I am trying to figure out how acollege student...
managed to run a staff of, itwas a hundred, right?
How did you pull that off?
Annie Saunders (05:10):
I think it's largely just the hubris of
youth.
You think you can do anythingat 22.
I mean, this was like 2007,2008.
So a very different time injournalism, both on the college
level and the national level.
The Pitt News, the Universityof Pittsburgh's independent
(05:31):
student newspaper.
Now, I don't know that itpublishes in print at all.
If it does, it's just a fewtimes a week.
But back then we were, atabloid that published five days
a week.
So it was very much a full-timejob, but it absolutely
solidified my love ofjournalism.
I was working with myclassmates and my peers, all of
(05:53):
whom had the same passion forthe work that I did.
And it was just, I assumed thatwas how work was always going
to be.
And so when you love it thatmuch, it's not that hard to do.
Yeah.
Dave Reddy (06:07):
And you went straight to the Post-Gazette.
Now, when I was at AmericanUniversity, which is where I
went in Washington, D.C., therewas sort of a pipeline of sports
editors to the Washington Post,the bottom of the barrel of the
Washington Post covering highschool sports.
But many of us did that, manyin a row.
Was there sort of a pipelinefrom Pitt to the Post-Gazette,
or were you unique in that?
Annie Saunders (06:29):
I don't know that I was unique, but no, there
wasn't really much of apipeline.
I think the Post-Gazette neededa copy editor, and I was one of
the few 22-year-olds who wasreally itching to work on the
Night City desk.
Yeah, I started actually inFebruary of my senior year while
still running...
the Pitt News because therewere some concerns about a
(06:51):
hiring freeze and they werelooking to get me in the door.
So I was taking a full courseload and running the student
newspaper and working a fewnights a week at the Post
Cassette.
Good for it.
I have to ask,
Dave Reddy (07:02):
how were your grades that quarter?
Annie Saunders (07:04):
Well, they were great.
I think I graduated withhonors.
I mean, I'm a classic eldestdaughter, gets the work done.
Dave Reddy (07:10):
Right.
You do your best when you'rereally busy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit aboutlocal news.
I'm starting to get morereporters on this podcast who
have local news backgrounds,which is interesting because
these days it seems like no onehas local news backgrounds,
particularly folks of yourgeneration.
But it's dying, and I thinkthat's a terrible thing.
(07:35):
How concerned are you about thestate of local news?
Annie Saunders (07:39):
Oh, very.
I would have loved to havestayed in local news for my
whole career, but it's justbecoming...
a much less viable option formany journalists.
I love local news and I thinkthat the experience I got at the
Post Gazette was critical tothe journalist and particularly
the editor I am today.
You know, I started on theNight City desk.
(08:00):
I was working from four tomidnight and my mentor at the
paper, a guy named John Schmitz,you know, he sort of taught me
everything I know and reallygave me a lot of really
excellent pointers that I thinka lot of journalists today might
be missing out on because thoselocal newspaper jobs aren't
there as sort of a trainingground.
Dave Reddy (08:18):
One of the things that I think bugs me about
journalism these days is thequalities going down.
And we can blame that on AI.
Maybe that's part of it.
We can talk about that later.
We can blame that on theculture.
But I do think, to your point,that training ground, that
natural training ground thatsome people stay in their entire
careers isn't there anymore.
(08:38):
And I think we're throwingyoung people to the wolves.
Annie Saunders (08:41):
Yeah, I agree.
And I think that there, youknow, there used to just be
papers all over the country frompapers covering small towns to
papers covering big cities toalt weeklies.
And now a lot of those justdon't exist anymore.
And therefore a lot ofjournalists are coming out of,
you know, maybe they're gettinga master's in journalism from
Columbia, but they're notgetting the sort of on the
(09:02):
ground experience you reallyneed to be successful in the
work.
Dave Reddy (09:05):
Yeah.
And, and then local folksaren't getting information from
about their locality, which hasobviously also had some impact.
Let's just put it that way.
Annie Saunders (09:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, Pennsylvania'sgovernment structure is
interesting in that there areall these tiny boroughs, all of
which have their own individualgovernment.
And it's a lot to cover.
And you would need dozens ofreporters just to cover every
town in Allegheny County, whichis where Pittsburgh is situated.
And those people are Those jobsdon't exist anymore.
Dave Reddy (09:37):
Segwaying to you spent five years at the
Post-Gazette and to your point,you already noticed that local
news was kind of going away.
So you moved to two verydifferent things.
Again, five years coveringcommodities for S&P and then
five years working again as aneditor, this time a managing
editor for a research groupfocused on women in leadership.
Unknown (09:59):
Yeah.
Dave Reddy (09:59):
So first of all, five years, is that when you're
ready for a change?
Annie Saunders (10:03):
No, I wouldn't necessarily say that.
I think it's just sort of howit panned out.
I actually did two jobs while Iwas at the Post Gazette.
I spent three years on theNight City desk working as a
copy editor.
And then because I knew Iwanted to be an editor in the
long term, I felt that reporterswouldn't take me seriously if I
never did the work of being areporter.
(10:23):
So I did the work of a reporterfor two years.
I covered the city's easternsuburbs.
suburbs.
So school board meetings,council meetings, you know, the
nuts and bolts local journalism.
That was a really valuableexperience, but it definitely
solidified the fact that Iwanted to be an editor.
I've got nothing but respectfor writers.
It's very hard work, and Ithink that I'm better behind the
(10:44):
scenes.
And you're correct that I sawthe writing on the wall when I
left the Post-Gazette.
It wasn't out of a lack ofdesire.
It was about a need to securemy future.
And the job at S&P GlobalPlatts, I was again on a copy
desk.
I was on what they call thecentral editing desk.
And so I was reading the workof reporters who covered oil,
(11:09):
gas, petrochemicals, biofuels.
So I know a lot about commoditymarkets, which is sort of a
strange segue, but I did thatfor five years and it wasn't
that Again, it wasn't that Idisliked the job.
I just was ready for a newchallenge.
So I took on a variety offreelance assignments over the
course of the next couple ofyears.
And that sort of segued rightinto the pandemic when it was
(11:31):
fortuitous that I was afreelancer because I also had a
two-year-old.
And
Dave Reddy (11:39):
what is the two-year-old's name?
Annie Saunders (11:41):
His name is Arthur and he's now seven.
But at the beginning of thepandemic, he turned two on March
10th, 2020.
Oh, dear.
Yeah, so my ability tosubstantially scale down my
workload was pretty beneficialat that time.
Dave Reddy (11:55):
One thing I'm noticing, and obviously, part of
that might have been, you know,having to pull back because of
the pandemic.
But one thing I'm noticingthat's is that there is no
pattern.
which is very interesting inits way that you have tried so
many different things.
You obviously succeeded at manyof these.
You wrote for Start Now, whichis a Pittsburgh outlet focused
(12:18):
on startup.
You edited for Mark Bittman,who's a food writer.
You seem to have just a desireto try anything.
Is that a fair
Annie Saunders (12:27):
statement?
It absolutely is.
I actually was telling a friendof mine about this podcast and
I said, this is really weirdbecause I'm not a tech
journalist.
And he said, Annie, you've I'vebeen in tech for five years.
(12:47):
You're a tech journalist.
You know, it's still weird forme to consider myself a tech
journalist, which I suppose,arguably, I am now, editing a
publication called Tech Brew.
But for the longest time, Ireally considered myself to be a
(13:10):
generalist.
Dave Reddy (13:11):
But I, too, because I remember I was a sports
writer.
And then, like, everybody whogets into PR, I live in Silicon
Valley.
Everybody who gets into PR onSilicon Valley, I got into tech.
So I sometimes still feel likean outsider.
But I'm curious if you see itas I do.
As a benefit.
So here's the way I look at it.
(13:31):
If you can't explain your storyto me, and I don't know as much
about tech as the average guy,then we've got problems because
you need to get a dummy like meto understand what's going on.
Not calling you a dummy.
I'm sure you're far smarterthan I am.
But you get my point thatsometimes that generalist
perspective helps, particularlywith the gobbledygook that we
(13:51):
get in tech.
Annie Saunders (13:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
And that's the argument thatI've made for years in
maintaining a sort of generalistbent to my work.
I read a ton of journalism andI'm not just reading about tech
all day.
I read about a lot of differentthings.
And so it's my hope to keepthat generalist spirit so that
if something happens in the techindustry, I've got other
(14:13):
options.
I think that there's a lot ofvalue to being a generalist in
today's day and age.
Dave Reddy (14:22):
Well, one thing I can guarantee, having been in
the tech industry for a littlelonger than you, is something's
going to happen, because itdoes.
It seems to happen every threeor four years.
So you arrived on the techscene more than 10 years into
your career, which I think ispretty unique for this show, and
we're nearing the end of ourthird season.
You took an editor job atTechCrunch.
(14:43):
So again, you just told us youconsidered yourself a
generalist.
Were you...
nervous about taking this jobin the world of tech or is it
just the job that was in frontof you
Annie Saunders (14:55):
it was the job that was in front of me i you
know i was coming out of thepandemic it was sort of a
tumultuous time in my life and iwas looking for something
stable and TechCrunch, it was acontract position, but it was a
good contract position.
It was enough to pay the billsand enough work to keep me
occupied.
And candidly, I didn't know awhole lot about venture capital
(15:18):
when I started at TechCrunch.
I started reading about it andI was like, oh, the learning
curve here is steep.
I've got a lot to catch up on.
But that was what made me lovethe job.
I came into a circumstancewhere I didn't really have a
good handle on all the subjectmatter.
And you know, sometimes beingan editor is like being in
(15:38):
school forever.
You're just, you're presentedwith constant opportunities to
learn.
And that's what I enjoy mostabout the work.
So yeah, when I got toTechCrunch, I did feel a little
bit like a fish out of water,but everybody I worked with
there was really amazing.
And I got up to speed prettyquickly.
Dave Reddy (15:55):
Speaking of tumultuous, TechCrunch has had a
tumultuous few years and you'renot there anymore, but how do
you feel about their future?
And that may be a broaderquestion.
How do you feel about thefuture of tech journalism,
particularly with not only atTechCrunch, but at TechBrew and
around the world?
Annie Saunders (16:12):
I mean, I would say that TechCrunch and Morning
Brew are two very differentorganizations that are operated
very differently.
But I do feel like whathappened with TechCrunch is kind
of a shame because there are aton of super talented people
there.
And I do just hope that they'reable to right the ship and keep
being the excellent publicationthey've been covering startups
and venture capital.
(16:33):
So tell
Dave Reddy (16:33):
me
Annie Saunders (16:34):
about tech brew and morning
Dave Reddy (16:35):
brew.
How did, how did that job comeabout?
Annie Saunders (16:37):
Honestly, I, it was simply that I was still in a
contract role with tech crunchand I needed a job that had
health insurance.
I'm pretty, you know, yeah.
Classic American tale.
Make sure
Dave Reddy (16:47):
Arthur goes to the doctor, right?
Annie Saunders (16:49):
Yeah, yes, indeed.
So I wound up at Morning Brewjust for that reason.
And I just, I got really lucky.
Morning Brew has a differentmodel than a lot of other tech
outlets.
When I tell people about techbrew and the sort of things that
we cover, I always say that wedon't cover local or breaking
news, which is true.
We're not looking to competewith The Verge or Wired or The
(17:13):
New York Times or any of theoutlets like that.
We're looking at three subjectareas.
I have three reporters on myteam.
They cover artificialintelligence, transportation, so
EVs and AVs, and climate tech.
And beyond that, we're notreally getting too in the weeds.
So by being able to be reallyspecific about the subject areas
(17:36):
that we cover, I think we'reable to do work that is
different than what a lot ofother tech outlets are doing.
Dave Reddy (17:44):
And it's, you know, having read the publication,
it's back to our earlier talkabout, you know, keeping the
stories interesting and not toocomplex.
You guys don't go overlytechie.
It's very well written.
It's very clear.
And I presume that's theaudience you're going after.
Annie Saunders (18:01):
Yes, thank you, first of all, for saying that is
well written and clear.
Very much.
Yeah, no, it's, we'redefinitely not looking to write
routine 1800 word stories goingin depth about how a specific AI
tool works.
It's pretty, it's businessfocused, it's reader focused,
(18:21):
it's keeping things in thatmorning brew voice, which is
snappy and conversational andnot taking ourselves too
seriously while still coveringpretty serious topics.
Dave Reddy (18:33):
Is the mission to stick with the three areas?
I mean, I realize it'simpossible to tell the future,
but are you thinking, maybeusing TechCrunch as a barometer,
or others who cover broadernews, will you be covering other
things?
Or are you sticking with thesethree?
Annie Saunders (18:51):
Good question.
I think for the moment, we'llstick with these three.
When I first joined TechBrew,we had...
We didn't have anybody coveringclimate tech, but we did have
somebody covering connectivity.
So the internet, how internetthings are connected, internet
of things.
And I said that I really wantedto hire somebody to cover
climate tech because it's mybelief that if we're going to
(19:14):
cover tech business, we need tocover climate tech because if we
don't have a planet, we don'thave business.
So these are the sort oftechnologies that are hopefully
going to help aid in solving thevarious problems consequences
of the climate crisis.
And, you know, Morning Brewsaid, okay, great, let's hire a
climate tech reporter.
So I was able to bring onTricia Crimmins to cover climate
(19:36):
tech, and that has been reallywonderful.
So I do think there's someflexibility there, but what the
future holds, I don'tnecessarily know.
Dave Reddy (19:44):
That's interesting, too, because, you know, thinking
back 15 years or so in mycareer, and I was at a bigger
firm, and we had an entireclimate tech practice separate
from the tech practice.
And oddly enough, that wholefocus started falling apart,
candidly, not just with us, butat outlets and other
(20:07):
publications over the course ofthe last decade.
So despite the fact that it's ahot topic, no pun intended,
bully for you for bringing itback.
Annie Saunders (20:17):
Yeah, I think it's tough because it is a
difficult segment of the techsector just because it tends to
be pretty hardware based.
So it's expensive and it's along time horizon.
You know, it's not software asa service.
You can't spin it up and put itout like it's going to take
some time.
So that's why I'm sort ofinterested in covering that for
the long term.
Dave Reddy (20:38):
So speaking of and I don't understand why climate
tech is a political thing, butit is.
So past six months, there'sbeen a shift by almost everybody
in tech media.
To covering Musk, I guess thatmay come to an end now.
Trump, DC, executive orders,tech in Washington seem to be
more tied together than theyever have been.
How long do you expect this tolast?
(20:59):
And how are you folks, if atall, handling it at TechBrew?
Annie Saunders (21:05):
Oh, I don't know how it will last.
And anybody who tells you theydo, I think is probably not
telling you the truth.
I...
I will say that I think a lotof tech journalists were really
well positioned to cover thiscurrent political moment.
I think some of the bestreporting coming out of
Washington is in Wired magazine.
And we're covering it as itrelates to our three core
(21:27):
subject matter areas.
So are there going to befederal regulations on AVs?
Are they going to repeal coreportions of the Inflation
Reduction Act, which wouldimpact climate tax credits?
So we're looking at it fromthose pretty specific
standpoints.
But yeah, in terms of whathappens every day is a new
(21:49):
adventure.
Dave Reddy (21:51):
We live in interesting times.
Speaking of AI, it's storynumber one, two, and three.
It is one of the three thingsyou cover.
Force for good, force for bad,
Annie Saunders (22:00):
both?
I don't think we know theanswer to that question yet.
I think as...
as much as we seem to be in it,as much as I have a full-time
reporter on my team covering AI,I do still think we're early in
this technology.
And the way it's going to playout in terms of business and the
tech sector as a whole, I don'tknow that we know yet.
Dave Reddy (22:23):
How about AI and journalism?
Are you using it?
And what do you think about it?
Annie Saunders (22:29):
I am not using it and no one on my team is
using it.
I think that...
for writers, there might be alittle bit of an allergy to it
to say, I don't need AI to dothis.
I can do this.
You know, that's not to saythat I would be opposed about
using it in the future.
I have friends who are lawyerswho use it a ton.
It's great in with researchhelp.
(22:50):
So, you know, it's not to saythat I'm opposed, but at the
moment we're not, we're notusing any AI
Dave Reddy (22:56):
tools.
Okay, great.
My, my last question, thisone's a little different because
normally I ask someone to pickbetween two places they've
lived, but You've livedessentially in one place.
So if not Pittsburgh, where?
Annie Saunders (23:07):
Nowhere.
In spite of the terribleweather and the terrible
baseball team, I'm a lifer.
I travel to New York for work alot, and I always say that I
can spend three days there, butI'm not tough enough to live
there.
I love Pittsburgh, and I've...
(23:30):
I've got a really great lifehere.
I live within walking distanceof my best friend of 30 years.
And, you know, it's notparadise.
It has flaws, but I earnestlycouldn't see myself living
anywhere else.
Dave Reddy (23:44):
Well, Annie from Pittsburgh, thank you so much
for being on the show andcontinued good luck with Tech
Brew and Morning Brew.
Annie Saunders (23:51):
Thanks so much, Dave.
This was fun.
Dave Reddy (23:53):
I'd like to thank you all for listening today.
And once again, a big thank youto our guest, Annie Saunders of
Tech Brew.
Join us again next month whenwe interview yet another member
of the B2B Tech Top 200.
In the meantime, if you've gotfeedback on today's podcast, or
if you'd like to learn moreabout Big Valley Marketing and
how we identified the B2B TechTop 200, be sure to drop me an
(24:14):
email at dreadyatbigvalley.co.
That's D-R-E-D-D-Y at BigValley, all one word, dot C-O,
no M.
You can also email the wholeteam at
pressingmattersatbigvalley.co.
Once again, thanks forlistening.
And as always, think big.
Annie Saunders has been a tech journalist for
several years now, but herdiverse career background, local
news, commodities, food, hadher questioning why we'd even
invite her on this show.
No need to question yourself,Annie.
Generalists make great techjournalists, as is evidenced by
the reporting on AI, EVtransportation, and climate tech
(00:20):
for Morning Brew's Tech Brew,where Annie serves as editor.
A lifelong Pittsburgher,Seriously, it's the only place
she's ever lived or will live,she tells us.
Annie told us that her Yinzerdowry, which is a great phrase,
was getting Steelers seasontickets from her dad after she
got married.
She grew up 30 miles outsidePittsburgh, ran the school paper
(00:43):
at the University ofPittsburgh, and spent five years
on the editing desk at thePittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Yinzer, indeed.
Now, aside from Pittsburgh,Annie joined us to talk about
the woeful state of localjournalism, her vision for
Morning Brew, and how her careeris her way of fulfilling her
late mother's legacy for thisepisode of Pressing Matters from
(01:04):
Big Valley Marketing, thepodcast that brings you
conversations with the top mediaand influencers in B2B tech.
I'm Dave Reddy, head of BigValley Marketing's media and
influencers practice, and I'myour host.
Through research and goodold-fashioned relationship
building, We've identified B2BTech's top 200 media and
influencers, including Annie.
Here's our chat with Annie.
(01:25):
Enjoy.
Annie, thanks so much for beingon the podcast.
Really appreciate your time.
Annie Saunders (01:39):
Hi, Dave.
Thanks so much for having me.
Dave Reddy (01:41):
Our pleasure.
Our pleasure.
So let's just jump right intoit.
So you grew up in Pittsburgh ornear Pittsburgh, and you've
been there your entire life.
Annie Saunders (01:49):
Yes.
That's right.
I'm a lifer.
I grew up about 30 minutes eastof the city in a town called
Irwin.
And I moved within the citylimits to go to the University
of Pittsburgh the week after Igraduated from high school.
I was definitely done with asmall town life.
And I've been here ever since.
I started my career at myhometown paper, the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.
(02:09):
And I definitely can't leavenow.
My husband is a member of thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,
which is not a job that can bedone remotely.
No, it can't.
What does he play?
He plays the bass.
Dave Reddy (02:21):
Bass guitar or stand-up bass?
Annie Saunders (02:23):
Stand-up, upright bass.
Dave Reddy (02:27):
That's awesome.
Yeah, no, you can't move.
Now, unless, of course, he getsanother symphony job, and then
you'd have to leave Pittsburghfor the first time.
Annie Saunders (02:34):
They're few and far between.
I think we're here for the longhaul.
Dave Reddy (02:38):
Okay, good.
What do mom and dad do?
I presume they too arePittsburghers.
Annie Saunders (02:42):
Yes, indeed.
They're both from Irwin, thetown I grew up in.
They are not journalists.
My dad is actually a host at arestaurant after spending most
of his career in the carbusiness.
My mother, she died prettyyoung.
She was 42.
I was 16.
I'm sorry.
That's all right.
It's been a long enough timethat I've got some distance from
(03:03):
it.
I can talk about it prettycomfortably.
I don't know that she everreally got an opportunity to
figure out what she wanted todo, but toward the end of her
life, she did start takingclasses at the local community
college in writing andjournalism and was writing for
my even smaller, like the subhometown paper, the, uh, the
Norwin star.
And so she started coveringcouncil meetings and writing a
(03:26):
column.
And that was sort of when I gotthe bug.
Dave Reddy (03:29):
So your inspiration was your mom.
That's nice.
Annie Saunders (03:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think to some extent Idecided on this profession
because I wanted to fulfill whatshe didn't necessarily get a
chance to accomplish.
Dave Reddy (03:40):
That's a, it's a wonderful legacy for you.
When you started writing, um,How young were you?
I remember when I startedwriting, I was writing fake
sports stories after watching...
Well, they weren't fake.
I'd watch a Bruins game.
I'm from Boston.
And I'd write the story formyself just to read it to
myself.
Were you doing things likethat?
Were you writing short stories?
What were you doing?
Annie Saunders (04:01):
I mean, I did a little bit of writing in high
school that I can remember, butI was...
I was and still am sort ofalways interested in editing.
My mom would write her storiesfrom council meetings or she
would write a column and shewould hand it to me to edit
before she gave it to her actualeditor.
No
Dave Reddy (04:19):
kidding.
Annie Saunders (04:20):
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I've always been more of aneditor than a writer.
Dave Reddy (04:24):
My wife was my first editor.
Not that she was my wife, ofcourse.
Annie Saunders (04:28):
It's family.
Dave Reddy (04:29):
Some of our greatest arguments were when we were
first dating and over me, thewriter and her, the editor.
But we're still together.
So to the point about editing,you didn't simply work for your
school paper at the Universityof Pittsburgh.
You ran the darn thing.
Now, when I was in school,after I met my wife, the year
(04:51):
after that, I became the sportseditor.
But we were weekly, and I hadmaybe five writers.
And that was probably more thanI could handle.
I am trying to figure out how acollege student...
managed to run a staff of, itwas a hundred, right?
How did you pull that off?
Annie Saunders (05:10):
I think it's largely just the hubris of
youth.
You think you can do anythingat 22.
I mean, this was like 2007,2008.
So a very different time injournalism, both on the college
level and the national level.
The Pitt News, the Universityof Pittsburgh's independent
(05:31):
student newspaper.
Now, I don't know that itpublishes in print at all.
If it does, it's just a fewtimes a week.
But back then we were, atabloid that published five days
a week.
So it was very much a full-timejob, but it absolutely
solidified my love ofjournalism.
I was working with myclassmates and my peers, all of
(05:53):
whom had the same passion forthe work that I did.
And it was just, I assumed thatwas how work was always going
to be.
And so when you love it thatmuch, it's not that hard to do.
Yeah.
Dave Reddy (06:07):
And you went straight to the Post-Gazette.
Now, when I was at AmericanUniversity, which is where I
went in Washington, D.C., therewas sort of a pipeline of sports
editors to the Washington Post,the bottom of the barrel of the
Washington Post covering highschool sports.
But many of us did that, manyin a row.
Was there sort of a pipelinefrom Pitt to the Post-Gazette,
or were you unique in that?
Annie Saunders (06:29):
I don't know that I was unique, but no, there
wasn't really much of apipeline.
I think the Post-Gazette neededa copy editor, and I was one of
the few 22-year-olds who wasreally itching to work on the
Night City desk.
Yeah, I started actually inFebruary of my senior year while
still running...
the Pitt News because therewere some concerns about a
(06:51):
hiring freeze and they werelooking to get me in the door.
So I was taking a full courseload and running the student
newspaper and working a fewnights a week at the Post
Cassette.
Good for it.
I have to ask,
Dave Reddy (07:02):
how were your grades that quarter?
Annie Saunders (07:04):
Well, they were great.
I think I graduated withhonors.
I mean, I'm a classic eldestdaughter, gets the work done.
Dave Reddy (07:10):
Right.
You do your best when you'rereally busy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit aboutlocal news.
I'm starting to get morereporters on this podcast who
have local news backgrounds,which is interesting because
these days it seems like no onehas local news backgrounds,
particularly folks of yourgeneration.
But it's dying, and I thinkthat's a terrible thing.
(07:35):
How concerned are you about thestate of local news?
Annie Saunders (07:39):
Oh, very.
I would have loved to havestayed in local news for my
whole career, but it's justbecoming...
a much less viable option formany journalists.
I love local news and I thinkthat the experience I got at the
Post Gazette was critical tothe journalist and particularly
the editor I am today.
You know, I started on theNight City desk.
(08:00):
I was working from four tomidnight and my mentor at the
paper, a guy named John Schmitz,you know, he sort of taught me
everything I know and reallygave me a lot of really
excellent pointers that I thinka lot of journalists today might
be missing out on because thoselocal newspaper jobs aren't
there as sort of a trainingground.
Dave Reddy (08:18):
One of the things that I think bugs me about
journalism these days is thequalities going down.
And we can blame that on AI.
Maybe that's part of it.
We can talk about that later.
We can blame that on theculture.
But I do think, to your point,that training ground, that
natural training ground thatsome people stay in their entire
careers isn't there anymore.
(08:38):
And I think we're throwingyoung people to the wolves.
Annie Saunders (08:41):
Yeah, I agree.
And I think that there, youknow, there used to just be
papers all over the country frompapers covering small towns to
papers covering big cities toalt weeklies.
And now a lot of those justdon't exist anymore.
And therefore a lot ofjournalists are coming out of,
you know, maybe they're gettinga master's in journalism from
Columbia, but they're notgetting the sort of on the
(09:02):
ground experience you reallyneed to be successful in the
work.
Dave Reddy (09:05):
Yeah.
And, and then local folksaren't getting information from
about their locality, which hasobviously also had some impact.
Let's just put it that way.
Annie Saunders (09:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, Pennsylvania'sgovernment structure is
interesting in that there areall these tiny boroughs, all of
which have their own individualgovernment.
And it's a lot to cover.
And you would need dozens ofreporters just to cover every
town in Allegheny County, whichis where Pittsburgh is situated.
And those people are Those jobsdon't exist anymore.
Dave Reddy (09:37):
Segwaying to you spent five years at the
Post-Gazette and to your point,you already noticed that local
news was kind of going away.
So you moved to two verydifferent things.
Again, five years coveringcommodities for S&P and then
five years working again as aneditor, this time a managing
editor for a research groupfocused on women in leadership.
Unknown (09:59):
Yeah.
Dave Reddy (09:59):
So first of all, five years, is that when you're
ready for a change?
Annie Saunders (10:03):
No, I wouldn't necessarily say that.
I think it's just sort of howit panned out.
I actually did two jobs while Iwas at the Post Gazette.
I spent three years on theNight City desk working as a
copy editor.
And then because I knew Iwanted to be an editor in the
long term, I felt that reporterswouldn't take me seriously if I
never did the work of being areporter.
(10:23):
So I did the work of a reporterfor two years.
I covered the city's easternsuburbs.
suburbs.
So school board meetings,council meetings, you know, the
nuts and bolts local journalism.
That was a really valuableexperience, but it definitely
solidified the fact that Iwanted to be an editor.
I've got nothing but respectfor writers.
It's very hard work, and Ithink that I'm better behind the
(10:44):
scenes.
And you're correct that I sawthe writing on the wall when I
left the Post-Gazette.
It wasn't out of a lack ofdesire.
It was about a need to securemy future.
And the job at S&P GlobalPlatts, I was again on a copy
desk.
I was on what they call thecentral editing desk.
And so I was reading the workof reporters who covered oil,
(11:09):
gas, petrochemicals, biofuels.
So I know a lot about commoditymarkets, which is sort of a
strange segue, but I did thatfor five years and it wasn't
that Again, it wasn't that Idisliked the job.
I just was ready for a newchallenge.
So I took on a variety offreelance assignments over the
course of the next couple ofyears.
And that sort of segued rightinto the pandemic when it was
(11:31):
fortuitous that I was afreelancer because I also had a
two-year-old.
And
Dave Reddy (11:39):
what is the two-year-old's name?
Annie Saunders (11:41):
His name is Arthur and he's now seven.
But at the beginning of thepandemic, he turned two on March
10th, 2020.
Oh, dear.
Yeah, so my ability tosubstantially scale down my
workload was pretty beneficialat that time.
Dave Reddy (11:55):
One thing I'm noticing, and obviously, part of
that might have been, you know,having to pull back because of
the pandemic.
But one thing I'm noticingthat's is that there is no
pattern.
which is very interesting inits way that you have tried so
many different things.
You obviously succeeded at manyof these.
You wrote for Start Now, whichis a Pittsburgh outlet focused
(12:18):
on startup.
You edited for Mark Bittman,who's a food writer.
You seem to have just a desireto try anything.
Is that a fair
Annie Saunders (12:27):
statement?
It absolutely is.
I actually was telling a friendof mine about this podcast and
I said, this is really weirdbecause I'm not a tech
journalist.
And he said, Annie, you've I'vebeen in tech for five years.
(12:47):
You're a tech journalist.
You know, it's still weird forme to consider myself a tech
journalist, which I suppose,arguably, I am now, editing a
publication called Tech Brew.
But for the longest time, Ireally considered myself to be a
(13:10):
generalist.
Dave Reddy (13:11):
But I, too, because I remember I was a sports
writer.
And then, like, everybody whogets into PR, I live in Silicon
Valley.
Everybody who gets into PR onSilicon Valley, I got into tech.
So I sometimes still feel likean outsider.
But I'm curious if you see itas I do.
As a benefit.
So here's the way I look at it.
(13:31):
If you can't explain your storyto me, and I don't know as much
about tech as the average guy,then we've got problems because
you need to get a dummy like meto understand what's going on.
Not calling you a dummy.
I'm sure you're far smarterthan I am.
But you get my point thatsometimes that generalist
perspective helps, particularlywith the gobbledygook that we
(13:51):
get in tech.
Annie Saunders (13:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
And that's the argument thatI've made for years in
maintaining a sort of generalistbent to my work.
I read a ton of journalism andI'm not just reading about tech
all day.
I read about a lot of differentthings.
And so it's my hope to keepthat generalist spirit so that
if something happens in the techindustry, I've got other
(14:13):
options.
I think that there's a lot ofvalue to being a generalist in
today's day and age.
Dave Reddy (14:22):
Well, one thing I can guarantee, having been in
the tech industry for a littlelonger than you, is something's
going to happen, because itdoes.
It seems to happen every threeor four years.
So you arrived on the techscene more than 10 years into
your career, which I think ispretty unique for this show, and
we're nearing the end of ourthird season.
You took an editor job atTechCrunch.
(14:43):
So again, you just told us youconsidered yourself a
generalist.
Were you...
nervous about taking this jobin the world of tech or is it
just the job that was in frontof you
Annie Saunders (14:55):
it was the job that was in front of me i you
know i was coming out of thepandemic it was sort of a
tumultuous time in my life and iwas looking for something
stable and TechCrunch, it was acontract position, but it was a
good contract position.
It was enough to pay the billsand enough work to keep me
occupied.
And candidly, I didn't know awhole lot about venture capital
(15:18):
when I started at TechCrunch.
I started reading about it andI was like, oh, the learning
curve here is steep.
I've got a lot to catch up on.
But that was what made me lovethe job.
I came into a circumstancewhere I didn't really have a
good handle on all the subjectmatter.
And you know, sometimes beingan editor is like being in
(15:38):
school forever.
You're just, you're presentedwith constant opportunities to
learn.
And that's what I enjoy mostabout the work.
So yeah, when I got toTechCrunch, I did feel a little
bit like a fish out of water,but everybody I worked with
there was really amazing.
And I got up to speed prettyquickly.
Dave Reddy (15:55):
Speaking of tumultuous, TechCrunch has had a
tumultuous few years and you'renot there anymore, but how do
you feel about their future?
And that may be a broaderquestion.
How do you feel about thefuture of tech journalism,
particularly with not only atTechCrunch, but at TechBrew and
around the world?
Annie Saunders (16:12):
I mean, I would say that TechCrunch and Morning
Brew are two very differentorganizations that are operated
very differently.
But I do feel like whathappened with TechCrunch is kind
of a shame because there are aton of super talented people
there.
And I do just hope that they'reable to right the ship and keep
being the excellent publicationthey've been covering startups
and venture capital.
(16:33):
So tell
Dave Reddy (16:33):
me
Annie Saunders (16:34):
about tech brew and morning
Dave Reddy (16:35):
brew.
How did, how did that job comeabout?
Annie Saunders (16:37):
Honestly, I, it was simply that I was still in a
contract role with tech crunchand I needed a job that had
health insurance.
I'm pretty, you know, yeah.
Classic American tale.
Make sure
Dave Reddy (16:47):
Arthur goes to the doctor, right?
Annie Saunders (16:49):
Yeah, yes, indeed.
So I wound up at Morning Brewjust for that reason.
And I just, I got really lucky.
Morning Brew has a differentmodel than a lot of other tech
outlets.
When I tell people about techbrew and the sort of things that
we cover, I always say that wedon't cover local or breaking
news, which is true.
We're not looking to competewith The Verge or Wired or The
(17:13):
New York Times or any of theoutlets like that.
We're looking at three subjectareas.
I have three reporters on myteam.
They cover artificialintelligence, transportation, so
EVs and AVs, and climate tech.
And beyond that, we're notreally getting too in the weeds.
So by being able to be reallyspecific about the subject areas
(17:36):
that we cover, I think we'reable to do work that is
different than what a lot ofother tech outlets are doing.
Dave Reddy (17:44):
And it's, you know, having read the publication,
it's back to our earlier talkabout, you know, keeping the
stories interesting and not toocomplex.
You guys don't go overlytechie.
It's very well written.
It's very clear.
And I presume that's theaudience you're going after.
Annie Saunders (18:01):
Yes, thank you, first of all, for saying that is
well written and clear.
Very much.
Yeah, no, it's, we'redefinitely not looking to write
routine 1800 word stories goingin depth about how a specific AI
tool works.
It's pretty, it's businessfocused, it's reader focused,
(18:21):
it's keeping things in thatmorning brew voice, which is
snappy and conversational andnot taking ourselves too
seriously while still coveringpretty serious topics.
Dave Reddy (18:33):
Is the mission to stick with the three areas?
I mean, I realize it'simpossible to tell the future,
but are you thinking, maybeusing TechCrunch as a barometer,
or others who cover broadernews, will you be covering other
things?
Or are you sticking with thesethree?
Annie Saunders (18:51):
Good question.
I think for the moment, we'llstick with these three.
When I first joined TechBrew,we had...
We didn't have anybody coveringclimate tech, but we did have
somebody covering connectivity.
So the internet, how internetthings are connected, internet
of things.
And I said that I really wantedto hire somebody to cover
climate tech because it's mybelief that if we're going to
(19:14):
cover tech business, we need tocover climate tech because if we
don't have a planet, we don'thave business.
So these are the sort oftechnologies that are hopefully
going to help aid in solving thevarious problems consequences
of the climate crisis.
And, you know, Morning Brewsaid, okay, great, let's hire a
climate tech reporter.
So I was able to bring onTricia Crimmins to cover climate
(19:36):
tech, and that has been reallywonderful.
So I do think there's someflexibility there, but what the
future holds, I don'tnecessarily know.
Dave Reddy (19:44):
That's interesting, too, because, you know, thinking
back 15 years or so in mycareer, and I was at a bigger
firm, and we had an entireclimate tech practice separate
from the tech practice.
And oddly enough, that wholefocus started falling apart,
candidly, not just with us, butat outlets and other
(20:07):
publications over the course ofthe last decade.
So despite the fact that it's ahot topic, no pun intended,
bully for you for bringing itback.
Annie Saunders (20:17):
Yeah, I think it's tough because it is a
difficult segment of the techsector just because it tends to
be pretty hardware based.
So it's expensive and it's along time horizon.
You know, it's not software asa service.
You can't spin it up and put itout like it's going to take
some time.
So that's why I'm sort ofinterested in covering that for
the long term.
Dave Reddy (20:38):
So speaking of and I don't understand why climate
tech is a political thing, butit is.
So past six months, there'sbeen a shift by almost everybody
in tech media.
To covering Musk, I guess thatmay come to an end now.
Trump, DC, executive orders,tech in Washington seem to be
more tied together than theyever have been.
How long do you expect this tolast?
(20:59):
And how are you folks, if atall, handling it at TechBrew?
Annie Saunders (21:05):
Oh, I don't know how it will last.
And anybody who tells you theydo, I think is probably not
telling you the truth.
I...
I will say that I think a lotof tech journalists were really
well positioned to cover thiscurrent political moment.
I think some of the bestreporting coming out of
Washington is in Wired magazine.
And we're covering it as itrelates to our three core
(21:27):
subject matter areas.
So are there going to befederal regulations on AVs?
Are they going to repeal coreportions of the Inflation
Reduction Act, which wouldimpact climate tax credits?
So we're looking at it fromthose pretty specific
standpoints.
But yeah, in terms of whathappens every day is a new
(21:49):
adventure.
Dave Reddy (21:51):
We live in interesting times.
Speaking of AI, it's storynumber one, two, and three.
It is one of the three thingsyou cover.
Force for good, force for bad,
Annie Saunders (22:00):
both?
I don't think we know theanswer to that question yet.
I think as...
as much as we seem to be in it,as much as I have a full-time
reporter on my team covering AI,I do still think we're early in
this technology.
And the way it's going to playout in terms of business and the
tech sector as a whole, I don'tknow that we know yet.
Dave Reddy (22:23):
How about AI and journalism?
Are you using it?
And what do you think about it?
Annie Saunders (22:29):
I am not using it and no one on my team is
using it.
I think that...
for writers, there might be alittle bit of an allergy to it
to say, I don't need AI to dothis.
I can do this.
You know, that's not to saythat I would be opposed about
using it in the future.
I have friends who are lawyerswho use it a ton.
It's great in with researchhelp.
(22:50):
So, you know, it's not to saythat I'm opposed, but at the
moment we're not, we're notusing any AI
Dave Reddy (22:56):
tools.
Okay, great.
My, my last question, thisone's a little different because
normally I ask someone to pickbetween two places they've
lived, but You've livedessentially in one place.
So if not Pittsburgh, where?
Annie Saunders (23:07):
Nowhere.
In spite of the terribleweather and the terrible
baseball team, I'm a lifer.
I travel to New York for work alot, and I always say that I
can spend three days there, butI'm not tough enough to live
there.
I love Pittsburgh, and I've...
(23:30):
I've got a really great lifehere.
I live within walking distanceof my best friend of 30 years.
And, you know, it's notparadise.
It has flaws, but I earnestlycouldn't see myself living
anywhere else.
Dave Reddy (23:44):
Well, Annie from Pittsburgh, thank you so much
for being on the show andcontinued good luck with Tech
Brew and Morning Brew.
Annie Saunders (23:51):
Thanks so much, Dave.
This was fun.
Dave Reddy (23:53):
I'd like to thank you all for listening today.
And once again, a big thank youto our guest, Annie Saunders of
Tech Brew.
Join us again next month whenwe interview yet another member
of the B2B Tech Top 200.
In the meantime, if you've gotfeedback on today's podcast, or
if you'd like to learn moreabout Big Valley Marketing and
how we identified the B2B TechTop 200, be sure to drop me an
(24:14):
email at dreadyatbigvalley.co.
That's D-R-E-D-D-Y at BigValley, all one word, dot C-O,
no M.
You can also email the wholeteam at
pressingmattersatbigvalley.co.
Once again, thanks forlistening.
And as always, think big.
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