Mon, 2017-01-30 17:44
Sam
Profile: Daniel Terdiman, senior writer, Fast Company
Even after 13 years in tech journalism, one can still get nervous about interviewing a tech CEO — especially if his name is Mark Zuckerberg. Just ask Fast Company senior writer Daniel Terdiman, who late last year looked up and saw a young guy in a T-shirt standing on his front porch, waiting to talk household AI.
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Christopher Booker is a genial producer/correspondent for PBS Newshour Weekend, specializing in where economics and politics meet demographics. That’s more exciting than perhaps it sounds. Christopher tells “big stories through small windows,” exactly what PR storytellers aspire to.
You’ll love TC Currie’s background. Back in the ‘80s she was a bored admin with too little to do — so she read software manuals. Soon she was writing macros, moving data from dBase to WordPerfect. She read Fast Company once in a while but never really followed the tech trades.
It was so close. Aaron Tilley was set to end 2016 with his first Forbes cover story, on Nvidia’s powerful and growing presence in artificial intelligence. At the last minute, top management decided to put Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner on the cover. More readers, better newsstand sales.
Fast Company senior writer Christina Farr teed off on PR last week. Stated her Nov. 23 Tweet: "PR needs to innovate in 2017: Press releases, embargoes, mail-merge all need to be a thing of the past. Not how journalists work anymore." Considering that Christina once worked in PR herself (Eastwick), her complaints carry extra weight.
Why aren't more PR pros pitching Kevin McLaughlin, The Information's AI reporter? "Some have reached out," Kevin says. "But I haven't been contacted by too many, which is interesting compared to my old job at CRN, where I had a lot of people contacting me every day."
Ben Kepes used to be a writer who did a bit of investing on the side. Today the enterprise tech influencer is an investor and advisor who does a bit of writing. Why the switch? "I was tired of being played," says Ben. "As journalists we get a very one-sided picture of what's happening."
What do you do if you're an editor-in-chief and have reportorial superstars everywhere you look? That's the landscape for Connie Guglielmo, now halfway through her third year as EIC of CNet News. Ultimately, she told us in a recent SWMS interview, her job is to "look at opportunities and add value."
When 2016 began, Stacey Higginbotham was a Fortune senior editor covering the Internet of Things. That kind of gig is the top of the mountain for many journalists, but not for Stacey. A month later she became a brand.
Vauhini Vara is not your typical "target." You may remember her as among the first Wall Street Journal reporters to cover Facebook and Twitter. In 2008 she left WSJ for the University of Iowa and a Master's Degree in creative writing. In 2013 she launched the Currency blog at NewYorker.com and oversaw the site's business section.
Since its launch in 1995, Fast Company always got it right. Not once has it reinvented itself. Sweeping layoffs? Never. Revolving door at the top? Nope. The publication has had only four EICs. The incumbent, Bob Safian, has reigned nine years amid breathtaking changes in publishing and technology.
New York Times deputy technology editor Quentin Hardy appears tomorrow night at a sold-out PRSA event in Silicon Valley. Billed as an "enterprise tech" journalist, Quentin does cover AI, and a bit of cloud. Truth is, Quentin hasn't sourced his own material all that much lately; instead he opines on other NYT reporters' material as part of the NYT's Daily Report.
