Sarah Lacy Blames Lack of Innovation at SXSW for Backlash

For those of you that wanted Sarah Lacy to lose her job at Businessweek due to her SXSW keynote interview of Mark Zuckerberg and subsequent backlash at all those that criticized her, sorry. Not only does Lacy still have a job at Businessweek, but she’s more or less posted her official response on the matter–on her column on Businessweek’s website.

I sat in on the Lacy interview, and recognized early on that the audience was pretty uncomfortable with the direction in which the interview was headed. Everyone, from the audience members to Lacy herself, seemed to hav a few knee-jerk reactions to how the interview eventually played out. It was a melodramatic situation that really captured the “youthful” Spring Break affect that SXSW apparently has on its attendees, and Lacy speaks about this in her response on Businessweek.

With a lack of breakthrough companies emerging at SXSW, everyone was left to talk about the Lacy interview, so Lacy says. Not surprisingly, Lacy went on to list some of the things she learned: innovation for web apps is in a slump right now, Twitter is a good communication tool, SXSW is still rampant with geeks (meaning the conference isn’t quite one for talking business–yet), and there’s still a disparity in how men and women are treated in the tech industry.

But if you were looking for an apology or an admittance of wrongdoing from Lacy, you won’t find it in her Businessweek article. As a matter of fact, you probably won’t find it at all. With Lacy’s Businessweek article, she’s essentially telling you to stop looking. She might even want you to find something else to talk about.