It doesn't mean they've "run out of post ideas." Not every post on TechCrunch is original or an exclusive, nor should they all be. They have a wider and mostly different audience to HN so it doesn't hurt for them to extend the reach of things from HN that would suit their audience (TC was far from quick with
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/18/is-google-me-nex/ too.)