UPDATE: As of 11:20 am Feb 21 Umair pulled down the post claiming it was harmful to Techcrunch. Note: the post only had 8 comments before Umair offlined it.
My post (below) was in response to that post. My original post below was a supportive post for Techcrunch. Now my orginal post is out of context because there is no original post to reference it.
I find that pulling down posts is bad form especially if the posts are written as editorial content. Techcrunch and other blogs write controversial posts that generate sometimes harsh conversations.
Below is my original post in response to the now pulled down post.
I saw the post today by Umair on the Techcrunch effect. Being a participant with Mike and Keith Teare at the formation of Techcrunch and watching him grow, I have to say that I think the Techcrunch effect is do to Mike’s work ethic and drive. As long as Mike stays around they will be relevant. On the community issie I think that as sites get larger they do get diluted on the community side, but Techcrunch has commenters who are pretty rabid.
What people don’t realize is that Techcrunch isn’t just Mike anymore. It’s a management team and staff that executes Mike’s vision. He’s outgrown the one man band blog to a fully branded publisher. This is a major accomplishment for Mike and his team.
Personally I don’t think that he can scale the way he’s organized but his site combined with events is a profitable model. I think that he’s nailed the events and Techcrunch meetup events. Those events throw off a ton of cash flow. What the Techcrunch growth story beyond that ..is anyones guess. However, it doesn’t matter he is profitable and unless something wild happens Techcrunch won’t be out of business anytime soon. (side note: PodTech is approaching breakeven as well). Being profitable is a good thing and allows companies to control their own destiny.
Overall, I think that Mike’s growth strategy is in alignment with how he has financed Techcrunch – organically self funded. If Mike changes his strategy from financing growth through internal cash flow to external equity capital, then he would have to rethink how he organizes his business.
One thing that I’d like to see is Mike publish his traffic numbers. That would silence the critics.
Silicon Valley Technology Blog - John Furrier 
Techcrunch was my first revelation that, ‘wow! This on-line company, its sister sites and events, are like any other major publishing empire.”
Computer World had mags, trade shows, reports, research arm, etc.
I didn’t know that you were that close to Mike Arrington. I have enjoyed both your original podcast site and Techcrunch back in the day. Glad to see you doing podcasts again.