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Kara Swisher

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Kara Swisher
Kara Swisher in 2011.
Kara Swisher in 2011.
Born1963
OccupationJournalist
NationalityAmerican
Alma materGeorgetown University, Columbia University
SubjectTechnology
Notable worksCo-founder of Recode
SpouseMegan Smith (separated)

Kara Swisher (born 1963) is an American technology business journalist and co-founder of Recode. Previously she wrote for The Wall Street Journal, serving as co-executive editor of All Things Digital.

Early life

Swisher went to Princeton Day School from 1976 - 1980. She graduated from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service with a B.S. degree in 1984. She wrote for The Hoya, Georgetown's school newspaper.[1] In 1985, she earned an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.[2]

Career

Swisher worked at an alternative newspaper in Washington, D.C., and The Washington Post, where she started as an intern and was later hired full-time.

Wall Street Journal

Swisher joined The Wall Street Journal in 1997, working from its bureau in San Francisco. She created and wrote Boom Town, a column devoted to the companies, personalities and culture of Silicon Valley which appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal's Marketplace section and online. During that period, she was cited as the most influential reporter covering the Internet by the Industry Standard magazine.[3]

In 2003 with her colleague Walt Mossberg she launched the All Things Digital conference and later expanded it into a daily blog site called AllThingsD.com. The conference featured interviews by Swisher and Mossberg of top technology executives, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison, all of whom appeared on stage without prepared remarks or slides.

Books

She is the author of aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web, published by Times Business Print Books in July 1998. The sequel, There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future, was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Print Books.

Recode

On January 1, 2014, Swisher and Mossberg struck out on their own with the Recode website, based in San Francisco, California.[4] In the spring of 2014 they held the inaugural Code Conference near Los Angeles.[5] Vox Media acquired the website in May 2015.[6] A month later in June 2015, they launched Recode Decode, a weekly podcast in which Swisher interviews prominent figures in the technology space with Steward Butterfield featured as the first guest.[7]

Other projects and accolades

Swisher has also served as a judge[8] for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC BigApps competition in NYC.

Newsweek has said "many regard [Swisher] as Silicon Valley's premier journalist".[9] In a profile headlined "Kara Swisher is Silicon Valley’s Most Feared and Well-Liked Journalist. How Does That Work?", New York Magazine said Swisher is one of the "major power brokers of tech reporting" whose "combination of access and toughness has made [her] a preeminent arbiter of status in a Silicon Valley".[10]

Swisher is considered a tough interview by many. She told Rolling Stone write Claire Hoffman, "A lot of these people I cover are babies", Swisher says. "I always call them papier-mâché – they just wilt."[11]

In 2016, Swisher announced she planned to run for mayor of San Francisco in 2023.[12]

Works

  • Aol.com : how Steve Case beat Bill Gates, nailed the netheads, and made millions in the war for the web. New York: Random House International, 1999. ISBN 9780812931914, OCLC 313499003
  • Kara Swisher; Lisa Dickey There must be a pony in here somewhere : the AOL Time Warner debacle and the quest for a digital future New York : Three Rivers Press, 2003. ISBN 9781400049646, OCLC 58726021

Personal life

Swisher has two sons[13] and is separated from her wife, former U.S. CTO Megan Smith.[14]

References

  1. ^ Dodderidge, Lili (October 5, 2010). "Top Internet Journalists Talk News". The Hoya. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  2. ^ Williams, Andrea (April 24, 2013). "SO WHAT DO YOU DO, KARA SWISHER, CO-EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF ALLTHINGSD.COM?". Mediabistro. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  3. ^ O'Brien, Chris (October 19, 2003), "OPINION: Book Explores What Went Wrong in AOL Time Warner Merger", San Jose Mercury News, retrieved January 27, 2010
  4. ^ Wasserman, Todd (January 1, 2014). "Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher Launch Tech News Site 'Re/code'". Mashable. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  5. ^ Hunter, Matt (2014-05-28). "Salesforce.com CEO: I run my business on my phone". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
  6. ^ "Network Radio Executives Spencer Brown and David Landau partner with VC Michael Rolnick to launch new venture called DGital Media to create, distribute and monetize audio programs". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
  7. ^ "What's the Deal With Elon Musk? Ashlee Vance Tells All on 'Re/code Decode' Podcast". Recode. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
  8. ^ "Mayor Bloomberg Announces Winners of NYC BigApps 2.0 Competition". NYC.gov. 31 March 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  9. ^ Nazaryan, Alexander (12 July 2016). "Jeff Bezos wants to rule the world". Newsweek. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  10. ^ Wallace, Benjamin (July 15, 2015). "Kara Swisher Is Silicon Valley's Most Feared and Well-Liked Journalist. How Does That Work?". New York Magazine. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Recode's Kara Swisher, Silicon Valley's Disrupter, Plots Political Move". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-11-08.
  12. ^ Green, Emily (April 14, 2016). "Tech journalist Kara Swisher plans to run for San Francisco Mayor". SFGate. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  13. ^ Casserly, Meghan (March 12, 2012). "What Kara Swisher (Really) Thinks About Boys, Girls And Getting More Women Into Tech". Forbes. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  14. ^ Dutton, Jack (September 5, 2014). "Here's What We Know About Megan Smith, The New CTO Of The USA". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-06-28. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
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