Changing Winds

When I moved to San Francisco nearly eight years ago, I did so to explore the roots of technology and to gain a better understanding of how people can use the Internet and its byproducts to better their lives. Along the way, I’ve worked in agencies helping clients adapt and leverage these things to build better marketing campaigns, but often thought about exploring deeper into seeing who makes the digital tools we’re so fond of today. That eventually led me into blogging and journalism, starting with various small publications, then to Bub.blicio.us (thanks to the ever helpful Brian Solis). Eventually I shifted towards my first professional journalism role with The Next Web where I had an incredible experience working with not only talented individuals, but also got a chance to fulfill part of my dream of getting to know the movers and shakers of the tech industry.

Things shifted once again in 2014 when I pursued a different avenue with Orange Silicon Valley as one of the company’s Strategy and Research Content Leads. But after a while something didn’t sit right with me — no, there wasn’t anything wrong with the job. There was still something drawing me back to my passion of better understanding companies. While I could have accomplished that at Orange, it sadly wasn’t enough to satiate my hunger to learn. Over the past few months I’ve found myself drawn to look back at previous articles I’ve written, whether about Facebook, Yahoo, Google, or fascinating startups, to profiles and interviews that I’ve conducted. It wasn’t the constant rush of being a part of the press corp. No, it was the desire to be connected with this economy and ask questions.

So my friends, it’s time for me to change. I am moving on from Orange at the end of the month and am happy to announce that I’ve signed on to become a reporter with VentureBeat*.

Starting the first week of July, I’ll be covering the news once again and would love to hear from you, the entrepreneur, the venture capitalist, corporate citizen, digital native, and aficionado. While primarily I’ll be covering Facebook and other social companies, I’m also going to remain heavily interested in what I covered before while at The Next Web (at least I hope so). One of the really great things about being at VentureBeat is that I’ll be reunited with three amazing (no longer) former co-workers Harrison Weber, Emil Protalinski, and Paul Sawers. The publication has built an amazing team and I’m honored to have a chance to work with them. I’m excited to work alongside Dylan Tweney, Jordan Novet, Mark Sullivan, Jennifer Tsao, Ruth Reader, Dean Takahashi, and all the other people at VentureBeat.

This won’t be totally the same experience before. While some may know my hectic schedule at The Next Web, I’m going to take more time to look at the news and focus on not only the daily grind stuff (and embargoes — but won’t do as many anymore), but also focus on taking a deeper look at companies and doing fun stories like this one about Facebook’s Open Academy, or perhaps better understand different professions like what’s it like being a product manager, and also doing more profiles like this one of Shervin Pishevar. It’s certainly going to be hard work, no doubt, but I’m hoping that this will be a fun ride.

I’m still setting up everything, but I’d imagine that my work email address will be ken [at] venturebeat.com. Feel free to send me a note and we can grab coffee. I’m always looking to chat and hear your story.

Thank you so much to my colleagues at Orange Silicon Valley for some fun times and great experiences. Shout out to Mark Plakias for bringing me on board, Pascale Diaine and her Orange Fab team (always a treat), Chris Arkenberg, my team’s outstanding designers KC Cheong and Carolyn Ma, and so many more.

Off to the races.

* Yes Alex, you won the bet.

Photo credit: Weathervane image taken by Steve Snodgrass/Flickr

3 responses to “Changing Winds”

  1. tacanderson Avatar

    Congrats Ken. Exciting opportunity.

  2. Marshall Kirkpatrick Avatar

    Go get’ em Ken! Enjoy, happy writing!

  3. HeatherMeeker Avatar
    HeatherMeeker

    Super excited for you, Ken! 🙂 Congrats!!!

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