WASHINGTON, April 5 -- When OpenAI acquired the tech podcast TBPN this week, it wasn't just buying a show - it was buying a message.

The move laid bare a strategy that Silicon Valley has been perfecting for years: ditch the tech-sceptics of the traditional press, and build your own media.

TBPN is in many ways a tribute to mainstream news, with co-hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays - both from the venture capital world - presenting a three-hour show daily from a studio in Los Angeles that resembles a business or sports program on a cable news network.

But Coogan and Hays insist they are not journalists, even if they line up interviews with key figures in the industry who offer insightful access to the Silicon Valley world.

The show - lik...