Owen Thomas (writer)

Owen Thomas
Born	1972 (age 38–39)
Nationality	US

Owen Thomas (born 1972) is the executive editor of VentureBeat since April 1, 2010 ^[1]

He was the managing editor of Valleywag, a New York City-based Gawker Media gossip and news blog about Silicon Valley personalities that bills itself as a "tech gossip rag".^[2] Following his position with Valleywag, Thomas ran NBC's local web-site for the San Francisco Bay Area, nbcbayarea.com^[3]

Career

Thomas first worked at Suck.com, and then later at the former technology magazine Business 2.0.^[4]

He was managing editor of the Silicon Valley gossip web-site, Valleywag, before leaving to run NBC's local site for the San Francisco Bay Area.^[3]

Thomas does some on screen commentary in the film Revenge of the Electric Car^[5].

Valleywag

Thomas replaced Nick Denton as the managing editor of Valleywag on July 6, 2007.^[4] Valleywag, a two-man operation, is written mostly by Thomas, with help from its former editor, Nick Douglas.^[6]

CBS News interviewed Thomas in San Francisco on his editorial philosophy in April 2008. During the interview, he explained Valleywag's purpose, saying, "People get into a bubble [...] Valleywag exists to burst that bubble. Silicon Valley is built on delusions." Thomas also mentioned that Valleywag crossed the five million pageview mark in March, the website's all-time high. When explaining Valleywag's purpose, Thomas stated, "Gawker covers a zero-sum world [...] If you're rich, you'll always be rich. That kind of thinking doesn't translate into our world. [...] In Silicon Valley, anyone can start a company and put out business cards that say you're a CEO." Thomas also commented on life as a journalist in New York City, expressing that "in New York, it's all about sucking up to your editor so you can get the cover and sucking up to other writers. The page-views system says you're answerable to your readers. You people in New York are obviously too busy not changing the world." Thomas was also asked if Valleywag published items to exact revenge on enemies, to which he responded that that was "the most boring reason to write a story. No one cares what I think." As a mainstream technology writer, Thomas often criticizes other journalists who fawn over their subjects simply because they are famous or popular. For example, he once blasted a Fortune writer by saying, "Has he ever written anything negative about a tech mogul?"^[2]

Privacy

On November 4, 2010 while moderating a panel discussion titled "The Promise and Perils of Transparency" as part of the GreenBeat2010 conference hosted at Stanford University, Thomas created some controversy when he suggested that people who cared about privacy related to their electricity use are the same people who check in on FourSquare. Later he challenged a representative of a utility, suggesting that he should be able to know if a neighbor's electric car causes a power outage.

References

1. ^ "Back on the beat: Owen Thomas joins VentureBeat". http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/24/back-on-the-beat-owen-thomas-joins-venturebeat/. Retrieved 2010-11-04. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "How Valleywag Trumps Gawker -- And Enlivens Silicon Valley". CBS. 2008-04-09. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/09/business/marketwatch/main4002809.shtml. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Owen Thomas Leaving Valleywag For NBC". Silicon Valley Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/owen-thomas-leaving-valleywag-for-nbc-2009-5. Retrieved 2009-06-04. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Guynn, Jessica; Lee, Ellen. "Tech Chronicles". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/06/BUGHQQRLUE1.DTL. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 
5. ^ http://jalopnik.com/5850470/revenge-of-the-electric-car-first-watch-review
6. ^ Harris, Wil (2007-08-03). "Tech rags forced to face unpalatable facts". The Inquirer. http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/08/03/tech-rags-forced-to-face-unpalatable-facts. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 

External links

• Valleywag

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Name	Thomas, Owen
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Date of birth	1972
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