The seventh annual Tyto Tech 500, published this week, revealed how journalists are now the most influential voices for the tech industry.
The report – which identifies the most influential individuals in the technology sector across the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden – is the only objective, data-driven influence study into Europe’s tech sector.
Amid global economic uncertainty, war and geopolitical tensions, there is an increasing mistrust of politicians and, in some cases, businesses. Meanwhile the rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence has led to widespread concern, prompting the first global AI Safety Summit – held in the UK – and the signing of an historic Bletchley Declaration agreement. Tesla, SpaceX and X boss Elon Musk even warned that AI could lead to the extinction of humanity.
In times of turbulence, eyes turn to the media. With deep fakes of politicians on social platforms publicising fabricated speeches and a wider atmosphere of disinformation, reputable news media is increasingly seen as a bastion of objective and trustworthy information.
It was no surprise to see media voices overtake business leaders for industry influence for the first time on Tyto’s list. The number of journalists placed in the Tech 500 ranking has risen by 38% since 2021 and now make up 198 of the 500 most influential individuals.
For context, the Tyto Tech 500 is created by assessing an individual’s traditional earned media and online influence. It covers 17 technology sectors and eight influencer groups, and isn’t reliant on single metrics or subjective opinion.
The methodology encompasses the influence of the individual (social media and online presence), their business or brand, and their presence on traditional earned media. In the case of journalists, instead of their presence in the news, it calculates the impact of their articles, podcasts and broadcasts.
Journalists featuring in the top 20 UK influencers include Sarah Butler, retail correspondent at The Guardian; Dan Milmo, global technology editor at The Guardian; The Times journalist Simon Duke; Jonathan Amos, science correspondent at the BBC; Damian Carrington, environment editor at The Guardian; and little old me.
I’m not one to shout about success – nor one to pretend that every initiative goes according to plan – but recognition such as this for a small team dedicated to serving the UK’s business tech sector is very welcome. BusinessCloud’s Tech 50 rankings are celebrated; TechBlast’s Startups 2.0 initiative is taking off (just look at the interest in the North East and Tees Valley Startups 2.0 list and pitching event with IGNITE next week); and we try to cover all areas of the UK with our news, insights and interviews.
We are all about the personal touch: seeing more than 20 startups and scaleups locked into deep conversations with 12 industry experts in our FUEL Manchester masterclasses at KPMG recently was a personal highlight this year, although my business partner and executive editor Chris Maguire was the man who brought it all together on the day.
We’ve never entered awards. Our growth from day one has been strictly organic. And we are always there to publicise new businesses and technologies as they scrap for survival and, hopefully, long-term success.
I take great pleasure from seeing CEOs flooding to LinkedIn to laud their appearance on the Tech 50s as validation of their business’s innovation. And for one day only, I’ll hype our Tyto Tech 500 spot as a validation that we are doing something right.
To download the full Tech 500 report, visit: https://tytopr.com/2023-tyto-tech-500