5 ms·

Josh Topolsky of The Verge Is Joining Bloomberg

81 points by hodgesmr 12y ago

Zhenya 12y ago
"He will run develop and run Bloomberg’s new ventures..." NY Times, ladies and gentleman. What an age we are in.
- sremani 12y ago
  The Age of Attention Deficit
  - nodata 12y ago
    tl;dr pls
    - closetnerd 12y ago
      ADD
- sp332 12y ago
  Looks like the author has a long history of copy-and-pasting press releases. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/ravi_somaiya/index.html?action=click&contentCollection=Media&module=Byline&region=Header&pgtype=article http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s...
ghshephard 12y ago
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.
- theanirudh 12y ago
  They just announced it http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/24/5933361/welcome-to-the-future http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/24/5933361/welcome-to-the-fut...
  - w1ntermute 12y ago
    > 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.
    - sp332 12y ago
      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.
      - winry 12y ago
        Wait, I though we all wanted to read reviews for terrible romantic comedies.
- dublinben 12y ago
  I'm sure they'll have some blogspam up, now that the Times has written about it.
- josu 12y ago
  Nor The Verge, nor Bloomberg. I wonder how the NYT got the story.
- vrikis 12y ago
  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!
theanirudh 12y ago
Looks like Nilay Patel is replacing him https://twitter.com/ravisomaiya/status/492318663748628481 https://twitter.com/ravisomaiya/status/492318663748628481
- JshWright 12y ago
  That seems like the obvious choice, doesn't it?
dbingham 12y ago
It took me a solid 20 seconds to figure out that this article wasn't about Joel Spolsky. Pre-coffee confirmation bias.
endemic 12y ago
Kind of disappointing for me; I doubt I'll read much of Topolsky's new work.
spike021 12y ago
I started reading The Verge back in 2011 when it first launched. The creativity (as shown in their very detailed exclusives; one example: [1]) they had at the time was pretty incredible. 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-future-passed http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/3/2504531/jetpack-history-fu...
- maxsilver 12y ago
  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)
  - psbp 12y ago
    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.
  - wiremine 12y ago
    > 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.
  - TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
tomorgan 12y ago
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.
- x0x0 12y ago
  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.
mcot2 12y ago
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.
- closetnerd 12y ago
  Financial Software. Only people in finance could be fooled into thinking that its "cutting edge".

81 points by hodgesmr 12y ago

Zhenya 12y ago

"He will run develop and run Bloomberg’s new ventures..." NY Times, ladies and gentleman. What an age we are in.

sremani 12y ago
The Age of Attention Deficit
- nodata 12y ago
  tl;dr pls
  - closetnerd 12y ago
    ADD
sp332 12y ago
Looks like the author has a long history of copy-and-pasting press releases. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/ravi_somaiya/index.html?action=click&contentCollection=Media&module=Byline&region=Header&pgtype=article http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s...

ghshephard 12y ago

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.

theanirudh 12y ago
They just announced it http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/24/5933361/welcome-to-the-future http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/24/5933361/welcome-to-the-fut...
- w1ntermute 12y ago
  > 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.
  - sp332 12y ago
    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.
    - winry 12y ago
      Wait, I though we all wanted to read reviews for terrible romantic comedies.
dublinben 12y ago
I'm sure they'll have some blogspam up, now that the Times has written about it.
josu 12y ago
Nor The Verge, nor Bloomberg. I wonder how the NYT got the story.
vrikis 12y ago
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!

theanirudh 12y ago

Looks like Nilay Patel is replacing him https://twitter.com/ravisomaiya/status/492318663748628481 https://twitter.com/ravisomaiya/status/492318663748628481

JshWright 12y ago
That seems like the obvious choice, doesn't it?

dbingham 12y ago

It took me a solid 20 seconds to figure out that this article wasn't about Joel Spolsky. Pre-coffee confirmation bias.

endemic 12y ago

Kind of disappointing for me; I doubt I'll read much of Topolsky's new work.

spike021 12y ago

I started reading The Verge back in 2011 when it first launched. The creativity (as shown in their very detailed exclusives; one example: [1]) they had at the time was pretty incredible. 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-future-passed http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/3/2504531/jetpack-history-fu...

maxsilver 12y ago
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)
- psbp 12y ago
  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.
- wiremine 12y ago
  > 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.
- TarpitCarnivore 12y ago

tomorgan 12y ago

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.

x0x0 12y ago
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.

mcot2 12y ago

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.

closetnerd 12y ago
Financial Software. Only people in finance could be fooled into thinking that its "cutting edge".