Dave Winer recently made some comments about “assembly line journalism” and “quote mill” analysts. Amy Wohl threw some more wood on the fire. I'm going to toss on some gasoline.

Tech reporters typically use analyst quotes for one or more of the following reasons:
(1)The reporter is looking for someone who can concisely define what's going on with a technology, and give an authoratative opinion to add meat to the story.

(2) They are just learning about the subject, and go to analysts to get a handle on it. They use quotes from analysts to lend authority to the resulting article.

(3) They want to create conflict within an article, and need to have somebody start a fight for them. So they go to an analyst.

(4) No one else is willing to be quoted for the story, and the reporter is on deadline with a hole to fill.

When I see a story based mostly on quotes from one or two analysts, I know that it's another case of #3 or #4. And it's situations like 3 and 4 that lead to the “bad reasons” Amy Wohl gives for an analyst call.

Now, as for the “quote machines”…

There are some analysts I will never quote, and some I will quote only with other sources for compare/contrast. These are the kinds of people who would still have a “buy” rating on Enron if it were possible.

Some analysts charge vendors to analyze them, or to be included in their matrix. Some analysts limit their research to customers handed to them on a silver platter by vendors. Some analysts are the equivalent of the Eliza program they used to run on the PDP-11 my high school had access to, parsing questions and rearranging them into answers.

Analysts at some firms have gotten bonuses based on the number of times they were quoted in the press. It's free publicity for their firm, and leads directly to sales of reports. And analysts at some firms are responsible for selling their reports, too.

So the next time you read a story with an analyst quote, think about the analyst's motives. And think about the reporter's motives, too. Usually, both are transparent.