Which leads me to wonder, how much longer will mainstream media outlets be relevant? And is TechCrunch really that much different / better than a "content farm" like ehow, which they seem to dislike so much?
1) At some point (if not already) it will be more beneficial to launch your startup here directly and get 100% of the HN traffic instead of losing most of it on a TC page.
2) There's no space on TC for startups who don't have an a-list cast of founders and/or investors.
HN is probably going to be what makes TC irrelevant which is ironic because they pour so much energy into securing this audience.
Are they better or worse than a content farm? I think the line is blurred a little but in TC's favor. They write news, some of it's pretty mediocre and a lot of it makes you wonder when they'll come out and admit they're Engadget and Tuaw's ugly green bastard child, but it's news and it's now, not generic content tailored to suck search engine traffic for years.