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Owen Thomas (writer)

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Owen Thomas
Thomas blogging live at an event, May 2008
Born (1972-03-30) March 30, 1972 (age 52)
NationalityAmerican

Owen Thomas (born March 30, 1972) is an American blogger, journalist, and entrepreneur. He is the business editor at The San Francisco Chronicle.[1]

He was the founding executive editor of The Daily Dot[2] and former executive editor of VentureBeat.[3] He was the managing editor of Valleywag, a Gawker Media gossip and news blog about Silicon Valley personalities that bills itself as a "tech gossip rag".[4]

Career

Thomas is a 1994 graduate of the University of Chicago.[5] Thomas first worked at Suck.com, and then later at the former technology magazine Business 2.0.[6]

He was managing editor of the Silicon Valley gossip web-site, Valleywag, before leaving to run NBC's local site for the San Francisco Bay Area.[7]

Thomas does some on screen commentary in the film Revenge of the Electric Car.[8]

In 2013, Thomas was named as Editor-in-Chief of ReadWrite.[9] He joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 2016.[1]

Valleywag

Thomas replaced Nick Denton as the managing editor of Valleywag on July 6, 2007.[6] Valleywag, a two-man operation, was written mostly by Thomas, with help from its former editor, Nick Douglas.[10]

In 2007, Thomas outed Peter Thiel as gay in Valleywag. In response, Thiel secretly funded lawsuits by third parties against Gawker Media, Valleywag's parent. Thiel's role came to light in the aftermath of the Bollea v. Gawker verdict, which awarded Bollea, known professionally as Hulk Hogan, $140 million after Gawker published a sex tape of him. Thomas contends that Thiel's sexuality was already "known to a wide circle", so his coverage did not constitute an outing.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b David R. Baker (2016-03-04). "Owen Thomas named Chronicle's business editor". SFGate. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  2. ^ "Daily Dot Masthead". Retrieved 2012-02-06.
  3. ^ "Back on the beat: Owen Thomas joins VentureBeat". Retrieved 2010-11-04.
  4. ^ "How Valleywag Trumps Gawker -- And Enlivens Silicon Valley". CBS. 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  5. ^ "Spoke bio entry: Owen Thomas". Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  6. ^ a b Guynn, Jessica; Lee, Ellen (2007-07-06). "Tech Chronicles". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  7. ^ "Owen Thomas Leaving Valleywag For NBC". Silicon Valley Insider. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  8. ^ http://jalopnik.com/5850470/revenge-of-the-electric-car-first-watch-review
  9. ^ http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/03/owen-thomas-joins-readwrite/
  10. ^ Harris, Wil (2007-08-03). "Tech rags forced to face unpalatable facts". The Inquirer. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  11. ^ Andrew Ross Sorkin (2016-05-25). "Dealbook: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War With Gawker". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
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