Modern times require honest and raw comparissons, especially when it comes to Media Outlets.
30 years ago, one of the main problems in society was the lack of information an average citizen could access to, and the knowledge, awareness and involvement of society with the daily happenings of the world was limited to what one could hear on the radio or watch on the TV, the control of information was tight and if you didn't specifically research a topic, the spoon feeding of information led by mainstream media outlets to the citizenship was unavoidable.
Nowadays, we as a society face a completely opposite scenario: The overflow of information is too much to handle by the average citizen. Between fake news, propaganda, shills, and agenda driven media outlets, the main goal of someone who wants to be informed and updated as best as possible, is to be able to filter out the truth from the enormous pile of garbage the current mainstream media is.
This scenario is the same when it comes to cryptocurrency news.
There are hundreds of crypto news websites. Most of them piggyback ride the content from the main outlets and re-publish or re-hash content the respected, trusted and OG places like coindesk, cointelegraph, bitcoincom, cryptocom and others.
There are thousands of tokens and projects out there. Most of them are scams, rug pulls, pump and dumps, or just blatant ponzi schemes. There are only a few dozens of trustworthy projects with enough credibility and time in the space to be worth researching by the average crypto investor.
There are hundreds of social media accounts, mainly on YouTube of Twitter, that gre their follower base early on and today, they actively sell their reviews or content, effectively shilling projects they have no idea what goes on in the background (or even worse, fully knowing about the scam) and making people lose money. Social media has become a battleground between bulls and bears, shillers and fudders, OGs and newbies.
The amount of independent newsletters out there is huge, I can't even begin to count how many substack, hubspot, listnerds, and dozen more platforms for newsletters that I've seen, and there are at least 1k different crypto newsletter out there, probably thousands more.
The amount of information one can receive online is out of proportion and there is not a way to filter out all of them at an individual, we need someone to do it for us, which is where websites like CoinTelegrap and CoinDesk come into play. Personally, I don't like centralized entities, because they have agendas, deadlines, profits to make and much more, but when it comes to headlines and happenings in the crypto space, I do trust some of them.
There are only a few place where one can get honest reviews and unbiased information from cryptocurrency projects, and even though I don't know what happens behind the curtains and I am fully aware both of them are for-profit companies and thus, some of their content is paid for, two of the news outlets I trust the most, at least to the point where
Credibility, non-bias, and speed are in my opinion, the main pillars that News Outlet must have in order to thrive in these modern times
Credibility: What a news outlet writes about must be at all times truth, one lie or half-spoken truth may destroy the credibility a website has, pushing away all their users or subscribers the moment they give out false information or shills disguised as news outside of their press release or paid promotion tabs.
Non-bias: This one is key. A News outlet must remain impartial towards the project they are reviewing. I don't visit CoinTelegraph or CoinDesk to read opinionated articles or shillings, I browse the websites in order to inform myself and begin researching a project or token. Even the paid content is good source material, because scams do not spend thousands of dollars for an article (usually), so if CD or CT cover a story or a project, this gives the developers some sort of trust that they are at least investing in the growth and spread of the project.
Speed: What good can be a ten day old story that is just being published today? None. It's easy, when I research projects or stories, I want the most up to date information available and I want it now. That's it.
CoinDesh vs CoinTelegraph
.Both of these websites are a complete ecosystem by themselves. Not only do they have the news part fully covered and working, but due to the time they have been part of the crypto scene, they have been able to develop different areas and extend their reach towards related topics. They are two of the few OG crypto websites in the crypto scene that have all the crypto related topics covered, and one could rely only in their information and value provided to make it in the crypto scene.
Of course, crypto investors like diversity and getting their information from different sources and never limit themselves to one website or another, but you get my point. CoinTelegraph and CoinDesk are incredibly solid and provide enough information to spend the whole day researching and learning.
Coin Desk
We are building the most influential, trusted information platform for a global community engaged in the transformation of the financial system and the emerging crypto economy. CoinDesk is an integrated platform for media, events, data & indices for the next generation of investing and the future of money.
This is as good as it gets, the CoinDesk ecosystem is one of the most integral and complete ones in the crypto scene. With a tab system that breaks down the news and stories in topics, a user can browse these sections fully knowing what to expect, and also searching for specifics without losing time or getting lost.
One thing that I like the most is that they have an Opinion section, fully disclosing that the articles there are opinionated - and that personally I avoid, but that us my decision, it doesn't mean they are bad articles.
The amount of up to date articles on every section of their news sections is amazing, I have no idea how many people they have in their payroll but I have to say: There is enough information for me to read for 5 hours daily and I wouldn't finish. And they even have videos for the too-lasy-to-read and podcasts for those who enjoy listening to finance and crypto content while doing other stuff.
The icing of the cake is their academy-like section, where users can learn a lot about the crypo space and the main cryptocurrencies, all broken down by expertise level so the newbies know where to start and the adepts can avoid the basic tutorials and articles.
As an extra layer, they have a research tab where the experts can dive deeper into topics of their liking and learn more while reading highly specialized articles that require a huge amount of knowledge just to understand them, let alone put the information to good use.
As any crypto related website, CoinDesk also has a Token Price List and a main asset tracker that provides an overall view and UI that breaks with the traditional token price lists out there.
There is much more to write about CoinDesk but I want to leave this review at this level and in a few days write an in-depth analysis and review of this website, mainly because this is a site comparison article but also because I know that if the article was longer you just wouldn't read it.
Coin Telegraph
Cointelegraph is the leading independent digital media resource covering a wide range of news on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and emerging fintech trends. Each day our team delivers the most accurate and up-to-date news from both the decentralized and centralized worlds.
With a pretty simple interface that focuses in visuals, Coin Telegraph has a more chill vibe than their competitors, putting their artists to good user for their thumbnails and their highly specialized content creators for their top notch articles.
One of the pros I think Coin Telegraph has going for themselves is the fact that their interface and overall feeling appeals more to the crypto investor stereotype that breaks away from the wall street format. As you can see from the tab Cryptopedia, CoinTele's lingo is down to earth while trying to connect with the younger generations, but serious enough to not lose their boomer and millennial audience, instead of using a word like Academy, they decided to go for a more crypto-ish modern word.
Coin Telegraph has a unique way of breaking down the information they provide to the user, without focusing on categorizing their news pieces and on the contrary, having them all under the same button that drops down a menu so a user can choose their category, giving space in the home page to other topics, out of which, the one that breaks the mold is their magazine section.
Visually, this magazine is just amazing, and regarding content the articles of the magazine are simple enough for a high-schooler to understand while keeping the appeal to the seasoned crypto investor. This is a good formula for success, and the only thing I would change is the home page of the magazine, perhaps including more articles and bringing out new pieces more frequently.
In this magazine section, CT has a more detailed menu where the crypto dude browsing around can choose his own adventure and spend days exploring this part of the crypto verse, because that's how the CT Magazine breaks down the topics, in universes.
The Magazine is a little universe within a the bigger CT universe, and I think it is one of the main value proposition points of Coin Telegraph.
Conclusion
While being direct competitors fighting for the attention of every crypto investor in the space, I believe both news outlets target a different stereotype of user. This means that each of them has a niche they attract the most due to their website's nature, while competing for the undecided or the investor who fits in both market targets.