PandoDaily

PandoDaily
Web address www.pando.com
Type of site
 Technology journalism
Available in English
Owner Sarah Lacy[1]
Editor Paul Carr
Launched January 16, 2012 (2012-01-16)

PandoDaily is a web publication that offers technology news, analysis, and commentary, with a focus on Silicon Valley and startup companies. It billed itself at launch as "the site of record for Silicon Valley".

History

PandoDaily was started by former TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy on January 16, 2012. The name was inspired by a tree colony in Utah, Pando, whose massive root system covers 106 acres and is continually sprouting new stems or trunks, even after wildfires have destroyed existing trunks. "It’s the perfect metaphor for what I love about Silicon Valley. It’s not just individual hot startups of-the-moment; it’s that unique startup ecosystem that continually shoots up new companies no matter how frothy or scorched everything above ground gets", she wrote.[2]

At launch, PandoDaily had a number of staff writers and guest contributors including Michael Arrington (founder of TechCrunch), Paul Carr, M. G. Siegler, and Farhad Manjoo. Due to a disagreement,[3] Michael Arrington and M. G. Siegler stopped writing for PandoDaily, but they acquired new technology writers including Greg Kumparak (formerly of TechCrunch).

In November 2013, it was announced that PandoDaily had acquired NSFW Corp, a politics-and-humor website founded by technology journalist Paul Carr.[4][5] PandoDaily stated that the goal of the acquisition was to double down on investigative reporting.[6] Carr then became editorial director of PandoDaily.[7]

As of 2013, PandoDaily has acquired the URL "pando.com" of the defunct Pando's peer-to-peer file-sharing website.

In late June 2015, PandoDaily switched to a subscription model, with most of their articles behind a paywall.[8] Any subscriber could unlock an article for 48 hours (with a limit of 20 unlocks per month) and the authors and editors generally unlocked recent articles and tweeted them to readers.[9] Their main reason for the change was to maintain their editorial independence and integrity without being too dependent on particular advertisers (for revenue) or particular investors.[9]

News coverage

Coverage of launch

PandoDaily's launch was noted by Business Insider,[10] TechCrunch,[11] Michael Arrington's personal weblog,[12] and other publications focused on technology commentary.

Union remarks controversy

PandoDaily's creator Sarah Lacy was quoted by American Public Media's Marketplace concerning the Bay Area Rapid Transit worker strike of July 2013:

“People in the tech industry feel like life is a meritocracy. You work really hard, you build something and you create something, which is sort of directly opposite to unions.”[13]

Her comments concerning the work ethic of union workers received considerable criticism.[14]

Uber controversy

On October 22, 2014, an article by Lacy on PandoDaily was published where she sharply criticised the "asshole culture" of ridesharing service Uber and said she intended to delete the app from her phone.[15] On November 17, 2014, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith reported that Uber senior executive Emil Michael "outlined the notion of spending 'a million dollars'" to hire four top opposition researchers and four journalists. He said that team could help Uber fight back against the press by looking into "personal lives, your families". Michael was particularly focused on journalist Sarah Lacy, who accused Uber of “sexism and misogyny".[16] Lacy wrote a sharp response critical of Uber's actions.[17] The controversy was picked up by CNBC,[18] Business Insider,[19] and the New York Times Bits blog.[20] Michael Wolff, the journalist who had arranged for and invited Smith to the private dinner where the controversial remarks were made, wrote a lengthy piece about the controversy, stating that Uber executives had believed that the event was off-the-record, but that he (Wolff) had failed to communicate the information to Smith.[21]

Events

PandoDaily hosts periodic "fireside chat" events with influential people from the world of technology and startups. Past speakers have included Mark Pincus, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Tony Hsieh.[22]

References

  1. ↑ https://pando.com/about/
  2. ↑ Lacy, Sarah (2012-01-16). "Why I Started PandoDaily". Retrieved 2012-05-26.
  3. ↑ Arrington, Michael (April 9, 2012). "About Pando". Uncrunched.
  4. ↑ Rushe, Dominic (November 25, 2013). "Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily". The Guardian. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  5. ↑ Ha, Anthony (November 25, 2013). "PandoDaily Acquires Paul Carr’s NSFW Corp". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ Lacy, Sarah (November 25, 2013). "PandoDaily acquires NSFWCORP to double down on investigative reporting". PandoDaily. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  7. ↑ "About Paul Carr". Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  8. ↑ Charlton, Jordan (June 24, 2015). "Pando Daily Pivots to Subscription Model". The Wrap. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  9. 1 2 Lacy, Sarah; Carr, Paul. "Welcome to a new Pando". PandoDaily.
  10. ↑ Lynley, Matt (January 16, 2012). "TechCrunch 2.0 Has Arrived". Business Insider.
  11. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (January 16, 2012). "TC Alum Sarah Lacy Launches New Tech Blog, PandoDaily".
  12. ↑ Arrington, Michael (January 16, 2012). "Sarah Lacy Launches Pando Daily Your New Favorite News Site". Uncrunched.
  13. ↑ Clark, Krissy (July 4, 2013). "BART strike reveals tech, transit worker divide". Market Place.
  14. ↑ Roose, Kevin (July 8, 2013). "Stupid Striking BART Union Doesn't "Get" Silicon Valley Values". The Awl.
  15. ↑ Lacy, Sarah (October 22, 2014). "The horrific trickle down of Asshole culture: Why I’ve just deleted Uber from my phone". PandoDaily. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  16. ↑ Smith, Ben (November 17, 2014). "Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists. Senior Vice President Emil Michael floated making critics’ personal lives fair game. Michael apologized Monday for the remarks.". BuzzFeed. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  17. ↑ Lacy, Sarah (November 17, 2014). "The moment I learned just how far Uber will go to silence journalists and attack women". PandoDaily. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  18. ↑ DiChristopher, Tom (November 19, 2014). "Uber will do anything to intimidate journalists: Lacy". CNBC. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  19. ↑ Johnston, Matt (November 17, 2014). "Journalist An Uber Exec Reportedly Suggested Publicizing Personal Details About Has Responded". Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  20. ↑ Isaac, Mike (November 18, 2014). "Uber Executive’s Comments Leave Company Scrambling". New York Times (Bits blog). Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  21. ↑ Wolff, Michael (November 19, 2014). "Wolff: Behind the scenes at Uber/BuzzFeed fracas". USA Today. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Events Archive". Pando Daily.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, January 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.