About

I wanted to work for a newspaper since I was five-years old. In the morning, I use to get up early to beat my father out to the driveway and snag the Kansas City Star before he did so I could see the sports section first. I’ve been a professional journalist since 1992, so I count myself among the lucky few who grew up to become what they wanted to be as a kid.

But the ground is shifting underneath me. My chosen industry is going through epochal changes. This era represents one of the worst moments in the history of newspapers. At the same time, it’s the most exciting moment in the history of journalism. Working inside a newsroom means I’m experiencing both.

My trek to this point really started at Duke University when I began working for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle, in 1989. I had the good fortune to land an internship at the St. Petersburg Times during the summer of 1990. It was in St. Pete where I saw first hand how great writing, superior reporting, and dedicated watchdog journalism could create an exciting, creative newspaper.

Following graduation, I began went to work as a night cops reporter for The News & Observer in March 1992. The paper was undergoing a tremendous transformation, hiring senior reporters, investing in multimedia and online, pioneering computer assisted reporting, and embracing narrative journalism. I was lucky to work there during what in retrospect was a golden age. From metro beats, I moved on to covering the Research Triangle Park and then business and technology.

That shift to tech reporting brought me to the San Jose Mercury News in 1999, at the peak of the digital gold rush. In the decade since, I’ve written about everything from the dot-com boom and bust, to the California energy crisis, to the Silicon Valley economy. In May 2008, I became a business and technology columnist.

During that stretch, I took a year off to live in Cambridge, Ma. from June 2006 to June 2007. My wife was attending graduate school. I became a stay-at-home dad and started blogging about my experiences during that alternateley wonderful and crazy year.

Since 2001, however, the Mercury News has been in free fall. We’ve seen the newsroom go from a peak of 420 people to about 100 recently. When I returned from Cambridge in June 2007, two things happened that changed the trajectory of my career.

First, I received a News Challenge grant from the Knight Foundation to launch “The Next Newsroom Project.” The goal was to research and design the ideal newsroom of the future for The Chronicle, the student paper at Duke where I got my start. The Chronicle had been approached by the Duke administrators with the idea of possibly building a new media center as part of the university’s plan to re-develop Central Campus and build one million square feet of new space. Over the next 18 months, I created the project site, coordinated volunteers, organized a “newsroom of the future” conference, and even got a student to build a version of the project in Second Life. This all led to creating a plan that was adopted by the Chronicle’s board as the basis for negotiations for a new home.

Second, when I returned to the Mercury News, our new executive editor announced plans to “blow up” the newsroom. The goal was to develop a new plan that would create a true online-first newsroom plan while adapting our print and online products to create a strategy for growth. The effort came to be known as “Rethinking The Mercury News.”

Over the next eight months, I was a member of an eight-person steering committee leading the project. We conducted a research phase utilizing “design thinking,” spent several weeks brainstorming and building prototypes, and writing business plans for new products. Ultimately, the company opted not to endorse the ideas.

Following the end of Rethinking, I returned full-time to the newsroom in Spring 2008 and became a business and technology columnist. I had previously helped launch a new blog called Docu-drama which I wrote in tandem with data manager Jack Davis to cull through securities filings of valley companies. That became part of a larger group blog called SiliconBeat, where I continue to blog for the Mercury News.

In addition to my writing, I continue to think about the future of news and advocate for fundamental change. Some of this comes from advising newsrooms and journalists, some happens in blog conversations through my writing at PBS’ Idea Lab and Leadership 3.0, and some happens through public speaking.

Despite the painful transition, I still believe passionately that this is the most exciting time in history to a be a journalist. In not knowing what’s coming next, I choose to be optimistic and excited to be part of the ongoing transformation of journalism and newsrooms.