With the rapid development of China's tech and innovation, the number of Chinese tech startups has risen rapidly over the past few years. David Cohen, Acting Editor-in-Chief of TechNode, shared with Telum his views on the trends of Chinese tech startups, TechNode's mission to English-language readers, as well as tips for people who want to launch a career in journalism.

How would you describe your role as Acting Editor-in-Chief at TechNode?
As the cliche has it, it's my job to make it easy for our reporters to do theirs. As a small outlet, I think TechNode consistently punches above its weight in terms of how much news we put out and how deep our reporting goes, and to a great extent, that's because we trust our reporters to know what's important in their beats and find ways to tell stories. As a senior editor, I try to take care of the planning and scheduling and to make time to talk through stories in the planning stage. Of course, I don't always succeed.

Where do you get your news from? Do you have any criteria that help you define the news value of a story?
At TechNode, we do some enterprise reporting, but we often rely on the excellent work of our colleagues in the Chinese-language tech media for leads. We're far more often the first outlet to cover a story in English than we are the first outlet to cover it.

We say that we're looking for stories that deliver insight into China tech. That can mean that it helps the reader put a price on a stock or make plans for emerging technology, but it can also mean getting a feel for what it's like to be here as a user of technology and how tech is shaping lives.

Any trends you have seen in China's tech and innovation industry over the past few years?
The big trend we've seen over the past couple of years is the end of the silly money, gold rush days. A few years ago, it seemed like investors couldn't throw money at startups fast enough, often without asking questions. That didn't always work out well—see Ofo or Luckin. So these days, we see investors asking a lot more questions, wanting to see that a company has a real plan to earn money.

That's probably a good thing for innovation. More pressure means companies have to do the work to get funding. And we see more focus on technologies that probably fit what the economy needs better, such as digital health care or software for industry.

What is the editorial direction for TechNode in the coming year?
We're continuing to work on developing our membership product, which means refining our in-depth members' newsletters and developing more events. We've just launched two new monthly newsletters for our members, on Cleantech and Semiconductors, which I'm very excited to read over the coming months. We're also testing out a new approach to aggregating news from English and Chinese media. Subscribers to our free "Filtered" newsletter will have already seen this in action. 

Of course, we're also interested in working with freelance writers who can bring a unique voice and perspective to understanding technology in China. I'm always delighted to hear from new contributors—and that includes writers who may not be comfortable with their English; we know that a lot of the best writing about China is done in Chinese, and we can provide translation support.

You've been in various journalistic roles, from freelancer and blogger to editor. How did you start your journalism in China?
Nothing special—I came here in 2010, and I started writing. I sold my first few pieces here to the Beijing city editions of the Global Times and the China Daily (both now defunct), and then moved on to pitching other outlets. The Diplomat had just relaunched as a website at that time, and it was a great place for a young writer to get experience writing regularly.

I'd advise anyone trying to break into the field now (and I wish somebody had told me) to pitch early, and pitch often. It's easy, if you're ambitious, to get stuck on a piece because it's not going to impress the sharpest people in the field it's covering. But all you have to do is get an editor interested and tell the reader something they don't know—which is a much easier job. You can always come back to the topic as you learn more.

Is there anything that people don't know about you?
Well, my secret identity is... wait a minute—you're not getting me that easily!