All Things Digital
In 2006, I was approached by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg — two of the most respected names in tech journalism — to launch a new media property based on the fantastic success of their conference, D: All Things Digital, AKA the "D" conference. An interview in one of the conference's red chairs was viewed as the prime spotlight in the tech world, and its hosts were, and are, almost equally liked and feared.
The project involved developing a comprehensive plan to translate Walt and Kara’s incisive and entertaining interview styles into a truly independent tech media brand, with a particular focus on old-world media ethics, accuracy, and journalistic integrity. I worked with the two of them to sketch out their combined vision for the ethos of the new digital brand, the structure, depth, and breadth of the site, and style guidelines for different types of blogs, videos, breaking news coverage, and in-depth product reviews.
This also involved strategizing with the two founders to select CMS and video platforms, setting publishing and promotion workflows across sites, newsletters, and social media, and establishing an ongoing editorial and visual standard.
We launched in April 2007, just in time for the 5th annual D: All Things Digital conference, where the main highlight was a historic joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. After launch, I remained with the team for 7 years, serving as Director of Operations and Senior Editor.
Thanks to WordPress, AWS, and AIM (also SMS), we ran the site with a shockingly small distributed team for quite a while. During Rupert Murdoch's first appearance and onstage interview after NewsCorp's acquisition of our parent company, Dow Jones, he complained about how long and how many copy editors it took to correct a typo on the Wall Street Journal. Kara quipped that a live blog of his remarks was being published as he spoke, and near-real-time video highlights of his interview would be live within an hour on allthingsd.com. He rushed backstage directly afterwards, like a kid on Christmas morning, to see four people work the whole operation.
We evolved the brand over the years to encompass a broad roster of journalists and content types, and an additional range of smaller conferences focused on the emerging media and mobile businesses in the tech landscape. The brand expanded within the growing ecosystem of networked sites in the Wall Street Journal ecosystem. We scaled our CMS, publishing systems, and content strategy accordingly.
In 2013, when the site re-branded as Recode and became a private company, I left to pursue roles that were strictly focused on Product Management and design.
I had a front row seat and a backstage pass to one of the most interesting operations in the world, at a most pivotal time.
In 2007, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sat down for a historic joint interview.
In 2010, a 26 year-old Mark Zuckerberg took the stage with Walt and Kara and quickly felt the heat of the spotlight.
Site placeholder and pre-launch announcement for the new brand.
Branding and visuals were by Mule Design.
One of the huge selling points of the new site was that "Personal Technology," Walt Mossberg's column for the Wall Street Journal, was now freely available without a Dow Jones subscription.
Walt started the column in 1991 as a way of communicating with everyday consumers (not just tech gods) about consumer technology. Its appeal and influence grew exponentially larger over time, and by 2007, his frank and accurate weekly reviews of products like the latest version of Windows or the iMac held enormous sway over the marketplace.
Kara Swisher's "BoomTown" column from the Wall Street Journal also found a new home on All Things D.
Kara's new forays into blogging and podcasting were to have a huge impact on tech journalism in particular, and the media landscape as a whole.
See this Vanity Fair profile for an idea of how pervasive Kara's presence is.
Since so many headlines were made onstage at the D Conference, it was important for us to adapt and expand our content strategy during conferences to cover our own events, as well as world events.
As a Senior Editor, and the driving force behind the Voices section of the site, I got the opportunity to curate opinions and think pieces from people in the tech world. I also frequently had a byline on the site.
As a numbers and data visualization nerd, I also had the opportunity to provide data graphics support to the editorial team at large.
Most of the time, I simply used Microsoft Excel.
Towards the end of my time on the team, data publishing tools for the web became, like Tableau, became more readily available.
I also contributed some illustrations when needed. This is a design for the inside of one of our conference hoodies.
"Desisto Inaniloquum Et Adtentus" is a rough Latin translation of "Shut Up and Listen," which was the actual name of the LLC Walt and Kara formed to start the business.
Photoshop creations were also a hallmark of the site, and I often got to put together photomontages very quickly to accompany blog posts.
Because journalism is serious business.
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© 2023, Beth Callaghan