Josh Topolsky of The Verge Is Joining Bloomberg(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
Josh Topolsky of The Verge Is Joining Bloomberg
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/business/media/josh-topolsky-of-the-verge-is-joining-bloomberg.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A6%22%7D&_r=1
8 comments
This has been my experience as well.
When The Verge launched, it was creative and full of interesting articles.
Something changed, and for the past 12-18 months, it's been pretty close to a "Cosmo for Geeks". They've also started getting some basic technology facts wrong (I first noticed this on their Nexus 4 LTE article, and have continued to notice it off and on through their latest Net Neutrality / Verizon vs Netflix articles)
When The Verge launched, it was creative and full of interesting articles.
Something changed, and for the past 12-18 months, it's been pretty close to a "Cosmo for Geeks". They've also started getting some basic technology facts wrong (I first noticed this on their Nexus 4 LTE article, and have continued to notice it off and on through their latest Net Neutrality / Verizon vs Netflix articles)
> When The Verge launched, it was creative and full of interesting articles... and for the past 12-18 months, it's been pretty close to a "Cosmo for Geeks".
I've actually noticed the opposite for me: I've enjoyed the articles more over the last 6 months than I have previously.
It might have something to do with how I read it: these days I tend to read Verge on my phone, whereas I used to be more web-only. Their homepage has always overwhelmed me, so maybe the simplified interface has something to do with it.
I've actually noticed the opposite for me: I've enjoyed the articles more over the last 6 months than I have previously.
It might have something to do with how I read it: these days I tend to read Verge on my phone, whereas I used to be more web-only. Their homepage has always overwhelmed me, so maybe the simplified interface has something to do with it.
> Something changed, and for the past 12-18 months
It's likely that a lot of these sites that made a name following consumer tech are just growing tired of it? What helped grow sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, etc was the rapid growing arena of cellphones, laptops and tablets. All of that has pretty much stagnated, and to be honest is pretty damn boring at this point. So what do you do? You explore and open to other areas beyond straight consumer technology. The problem with The Verge is I think they went too far into pop-culture type stuff.
It's likely that a lot of these sites that made a name following consumer tech are just growing tired of it? What helped grow sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, etc was the rapid growing arena of cellphones, laptops and tablets. All of that has pretty much stagnated, and to be honest is pretty damn boring at this point. So what do you do? You explore and open to other areas beyond straight consumer technology. The problem with The Verge is I think they went too far into pop-culture type stuff.
I'm not sure if they've ever had a good record for accurate technology stories. I stopped reading them sometime last year when I noticed how often their articles were inaccurate or just outright false for the sake of click throughs.
Nilay is more likely than Topolsky to make the Verge a lifestyle magazine. He has a very limited taste in gadgets and I've never seen him broach technology topics in a very insightful way.
He wrote a bunch of aggressive 'state of the internet' op-eds that were praised, but they didn't seem to be anything more than popular rallying-cries for semi-knowledgeable tech enthusiasts.
He wrote a bunch of aggressive 'state of the internet' op-eds that were praised, but they didn't seem to be anything more than popular rallying-cries for semi-knowledgeable tech enthusiasts.
That's actually very true, I'd forgotten that. But maybe this transition will be a challenge for him to increase his capacity and taste.
My same sentiments, his stuff is often filled with typical rally cries you'll see from places like Reddit.
I'm glad it's not just me feeling that way. I think it first hit me when I realized a high percentage of the front page stories were about drugs: legalized marijuana, Silk Road, e-cigarettes & nootropics all at once. I guess I'm not the average Verge reader if that's what gets clicks.
Their Seinfeld story a couple of weeks ago with the headline "That time Elaine threatened to kill herself with a gun" was when I added The Verge to my timewaster list. A few people complained in the comments about that one.
Scamworld is still my favorite Verge article, though "Finding Oz In The Heart Of CES" was also memorable.
Their Seinfeld story a couple of weeks ago with the headline "That time Elaine threatened to kill herself with a gun" was when I added The Verge to my timewaster list. A few people complained in the comments about that one.
Scamworld is still my favorite Verge article, though "Finding Oz In The Heart Of CES" was also memorable.
I believe Nilay moved to Vox.com some months ago.
Right, he did. But apparently Nilay is actually going to be the editor-in-chief now for The Verge - unless he's meant to be the overall Vox Media editor-in-chief.
Wow - that's huge, particularly as I think of The Verge as being Josh Topolsky. No slight to all the other many talented writers there, but his is the only name that comes to my mind when you mention The Verge.
Also interesting that The Verge hasn't broken this story yet.
Also interesting that The Verge hasn't broken this story yet.
I always thought of The Verge as Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, and Paul Miller... It's been kinda of a so-and-so website in the past year, so I'm not surprised he's leaving before the whole site goes downhill..
Good on him though, excited to see what he writes about. Fingers crossed we get some good podcasts though!
Good on him though, excited to see what he writes about. Fingers crossed we get some good podcasts though!
I really hope we get one more vergecast with all three of them.
Nor The Verge, nor Bloomberg. I wonder how the NYT got the story.
They just announced it http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/24/5933361/welcome-to-the-fut...
> Every story is a technology story; every technology story is a culture story.
It's this sort of bullshit newsspeak that makes it difficult for me to take The Verge seriously.
It's this sort of bullshit newsspeak that makes it difficult for me to take The Verge seriously.
The Verge likes to cover stories that aren't about tech. Their readership gives them a hard time about it, because they really go to the Verge site for tech news. This is just being defensive about their decision to run non-tech stuff.
Wait, I though we all wanted to read reviews for terrible romantic comedies.
I'm sure they'll have some blogspam up, now that the Times has written about it.
"He will run develop and run Bloomberg’s new ventures..."
NY Times, ladies and gentleman. What an age we are in.
NY Times, ladies and gentleman. What an age we are in.
Looks like the author has a long history of copy-and-pasting press releases. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s...
Wow. I guess we'll never know the full facts, but I didn't think that was a move which the Josh Topolsky I thought I knew from Engaget/ThisIsMyNext/Verge podcasts would have made.
Just goes to show: you never really know people. Or, of course, that every man has his price ;)
Unless there's going to be a techie Bloomberg podcast - I'll miss Josh's work.
@TheVerge: hopefully you can now put all this behind you, and crank it into second gear. There's still so much potential in what you have.
Just goes to show: you never really know people. Or, of course, that every man has his price ;)
Unless there's going to be a techie Bloomberg podcast - I'll miss Josh's work.
@TheVerge: hopefully you can now put all this behind you, and crank it into second gear. There's still so much potential in what you have.
I dunno; my takeaway is Josh is probably a raging asshole. Imagine if you where an employee recruited into verge, and the ceo bails for a high salary. The ceo of a startup should go down with the ship.
I wish him luck but I suspect he will move on in < 1 year. He probably got a massive paycheck, but Bloomberg is anything but a startup environment. Many people go there and can't get passed the old technology and old/financial world culture.
Financial Software. Only people in finance could be fooled into thinking that its "cutting edge".
Looks like Nilay Patel is replacing him https://twitter.com/ravisomaiya/status/492318663748628481
That seems like the obvious choice, doesn't it?
Kind of disappointing for me; I doubt I'll read much of Topolsky's new work.
It took me a solid 20 seconds to figure out that this article wasn't about Joel Spolsky. Pre-coffee confirmation bias.
Unfortunately, I have noticed, and I think others as well, that they've kind of been in a downhill stretch for the past few months at least. Maybe not creativity-wise, but structurally and even grammatically. It's been a bit disappointing.
Hopefully Nilay can begin to refresh their vision and work on bringing overall quality back to where it used to be.
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/3/2504531/jetpack-history-fu...