When I joined the young HotWired team in late 1995, I'd already been in journalism for 30 years, which was not necessarily considered as a good thing by my new colleagues as they were busily upending the analog world in favor of the digital.
The online adjunct to Wired magazine was not yet two years old, which would turn out to be about a third of its ultimate lifespan. It also was undergoing a massive growth spurt.
We were hiring people almost as fast as we could; I joked to friends that our interviewing strategy was to lock the door behind candidates so they couldn't leave even if they wanted to. That wouldn't have mattered because nobody wanted to leave -- if you were a Gen-Xer and at all creative, this is exactly where you wanted to be.
As for me, I may have been old compared to the rest of them, but my career had been in the alternative media, not the mainstream. From my days in the underground press to SunDance to Rolling Stone to CIR to New West to Mother Jones and public radio plus a dozen other stops along the way, I had pretty much remained outside of traditional journalism institutions.
But I did adhere strictly to the values and standards of traditional journalists.
My new colleagues were writers and reporters and editors and designers and photographers and engineers and interface experts and audience research specialists and several other categories of workers, almost all of them in their 20s, whereas I was turning 50.
They all spoke a common language unfamiliar to me, with terms like web browser, domain name, interactivity, bandwidth, interface, pixels, TCP/IP, url, html, coding, style sheets, IP address, network domain and on and on -- so many that I scribbled them down on a scrap of paper and kept it in my pocket much as I would foreign language phrases when visiting distant countries overseas.
When I finally got around to asking someone what all of these words meant he quipped: "Don't worry what they mean; just sprinkle them liberally into your speech and your market value will triple."
As I took that under consideration, the daily political site I ran called The Netizen began to flourish. We were rapidly building a large audience during the early months of election cycle 1996. Wired's CEO. Louis Rossetto, suddenly took an interest in what I was doing. He had a reputation both as a visionary and a difficult boss; many employees seemed fearful of his ill-temper. He was a fierce advocate of libertarian political views and was dismissive of leftist ideas.
So when he first summoned me to a meeting I really didn't know what to expect. Most of my work had appeared in left-leaning publications, and those who didn't know me well assumed my own politics were defined by that.
Perhaps he expected that he and I would not agree on much. But from our very first meeting, the man I got to know was different than his image -- he was quiet-spoken, thoughtful and happy to debate the issues of the day and -- most importantly -- willing to remain open-minded about how we covered those issues in The Netizen.
That kind of tolerance was critical if I was to remain part of the Wired organization, which I wanted to do. Louis and I quickly developed a mutual trust that allowed us to talk through the various sides of the issues we were covering and agree to disagree when we could not reach a consensus.
Meanwhile he never interfered in my actual editorial choices, though they often departed from what I know he would have preferred.
The ultimate test came when one of our cantankerous columnists decided to write a piece savagely critical of Wired itself and everything it stood for. This surely would be too much for Louis to handle, I thought.
As the piece was about to post, I let him know what was coming. His response was refreshingly direct: "Let him rant!" We ran the piece unedited.
In my book, that made Louis Rossetto a great boss.
Dealing with CEOs other people considered difficult was nothing new for me; after all, I'd studied under one the masters, Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone. Others may have feared these men and their outbursts, but I liked them and developed a deep fondness for both Jann and Louis that would last for decades.
Partway through my tenure on Third Street, Louis suddenly told me to come to his office outside of our appointed weekly meeting time so I assumed there must be bad news of some sort. Instead he surprised me by saying he wanted to move me to the top layer of the org chart as V.P. of Content for all of the websites in the HotWired network.
I hadn't sought this role at all but quickly agreed to it, especially the large raise. (At home we had a baby on the way.) In my new position, dozens of people reported to me including my former bosses, all of whom were half my age. I immediately set forth on a mission to deepen the collaboration between the various teams that made up the company's online universe.
If I was going to help lead this unruly, lovable band of revolutionaries, I was going to do it right.
(To be continued)
***
THE HEADLINES:
* Moderna says vaccine works against delta variant as WHO warns of global spread (WP)
* Covid-19 is killing Brazilian children at alarming rates. Many may be going undiagnosed (CNN)
* Virus infections surging in Africa’s vulnerable rural areas (AP)
* Masks Again? Delta Variant’s Spread Prompts Reconsideration of Precautions. -- Los Angeles County and the W.H.O. warned that even immunized people should wear masks indoors. Some scientists agreed, but urged a localized approach. (NYT)
* Fauci warns there may soon be 'two Americas' as divide widens between places with high and low vaccination rates and the Delta variant spreads (CNN)
* Search for Covid’s Origins Leads to China’s Wild Animal Farms—and a Big Problem--A WHO-led team wants an examination of the farms that supplied the market where early cases emerged, but most of the animals are now gone. That has complicated the search for the pandemic’s source. (WSJ)
* Video, images and interviews deepen questions about role of pool deck in condo collapse (WP)
* Security in Afghanistan Is Decaying, U.S. General Says as Forces Leave -- “Civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized,” said Gen. Austin S. Miller, commander of the U.S.-led forces. “That should be a concern for the world.” (NYT)
* ‘A Form of Brainwashing’: China Remakes Hong Kong -- Neighbors are urged to report on one another. Children are taught to look for traitors. Officials are pressed to pledge their loyalty. (NYT)
* Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has sent her state's National Guard to Texas, funded by a GOP megadonor, to deal with a made-up "border crisis." Noem, a likely 2024 candidate and enthusiastic ally of ex-President Donald Trump, is using the troops in "some authoritarian fantasy of a personal military," an expert said. [HuffPost]
* New York City's Human Rights Commission slapped the right-wing network with a $1 million fine, its largest ever, for violating laws protecting against sexual harassment and job retaliation. Fox also agreed to mandate training and temporarily drop a policy requiring people who allege misconduct to enter into binding arbitration. [AP]
* Progressives Are Hoping That Justice Stephen Breyer Steps Down At The End Of The Term (NPR)
* Vote counting to determine the next New York mayor was cast into chaos after election officials released, then withdrew, a new tally that accidentally included 135,000 test ballots. The preliminary results from the new ranked-choice voting system showed the race between Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and civil rights attorney Maya Wiley narrowing significantly. [HuffPost]
* House votes to remove statues of Confederate leaders from U.S. Capitol (WP)
* With Workers In Short Supply, Seniors Often Wait Months For Home Health Care (NPR)
* Why sea otters are a secret climate warrior -- As climate change introduces new stressors on marine ecosystems around the world, researchers in California have found that sea otters can help mitigate the impact through their role as a keystone species in kelp forests. (Reuters)
* Drought Leads to Water Limits in Northern California(WSJ)
* The Lava fire in Siskiyou County, which has burned across 13,330 acres and is 20 percent contained, is the largest of five wildfires burning in California. (Los Angeles Times)
* Death rate soars as Canada's British Columbia suffers "extreme heat" (Reuters)
* The West Coast Heat Has Killed Dozens And Hospitalized More In Canada And The U.S. (NPR)
* California tests off-the-grid solutions to power outages (AP)
* It’s not the heat. It’s the existential dread. (WP)
* A bear and her three cubs took a dip next to beachgoers in South Lake Tahoe. (CBS)
* A diver found a message in a bottle dated 1926. Then the hunt began for the family of the man who wrote it. (WP)
* Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now (The Onion)
***
"Come As You Are"
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
As I want you to be
As a friend, as a friend
As an old enemy
Choice is yours, don't be late
Take a rest as a friend
As an old
Memoria, memoria
As I want you to be
As a trend, as a friend
As an old
Memoria, memoria
No, I don't have a gun
No, I don't have a gun
Memoria, memoria
(No I don't have a gun)
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No comments:
Post a Comment