PandoDaily

PandoDaily is a web publication that offers technology news, analysis, and commentary, with a focus on Silicon Valley and startup companies. It billed itself at launch as "the site of record for Silicon Valley".

History

PandoDaily was started by former TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy on January 16, 2012. The name was inspired by a tree colony in Utah, Pando, whose massive root system covers 106 acres and is continually sprouting new stems or trunks, even after wildfires have destroyed existing trunks. "It’s the perfect metaphor for what I love about Silicon Valley. It’s not just individual hot startups of-the-moment; it’s that unique startup ecosystem that continually shoots up new companies no matter how frothy or scorched everything above ground gets", she wrote.^[2]

At launch, PandoDaily had a number of staff writers and guest contributors including Michael Arrington (founder of TechCrunch), Paul Carr, M.G. Siegler, and Farhad Manjoo. Because of a disagreement,^[3] Michael Arrington and M.G. Siegler stopped writing for PandoDaily, but they acquired new technology writers including Greg Kumparak (formerly of TechCrunch).

In November 2013, it was announced that PandoDaily had acquired NSFW Corp, a politics-and-humor website founded by technology journalist Paul Carr.^[4][5] PandoDaily stated that the goal of the acquisition was to double down on investigative reporting.^[6] Carr then became editorial director of PandoDaily.^[7]

As of 2013, PandoDaily has acquired the URL "pando.com" of the defunct Pando's peer-to-peer file-sharing website.

In late June 2015, PandoDaily switched to a subscription model, with most of their articles behind a paywall.^[8] Any subscriber could unlock an article for 48 hours (with a limit of 20 unlocks per month) and the authors and editors generally unlocked recent articles and tweeted them to readers.^[9] Their main reason for the change was to maintain their editorial independence and integrity without being too dependent on particular advertisers (for revenue) or particular investors.^[9]

News coverage

Coverage of launch

PandoDaily's launch was noted by Business Insider,^[10] TechCrunch,^[11] Michael Arrington's personal weblog,^[12] and other publications focused on technology commentary.

Union remarks controversy

PandoDaily's creator Sarah Lacy was quoted by American Public Media's Marketplace concerning the Bay Area Rapid Transit worker strike of July 2013:

“People in the tech industry feel like life is a meritocracy. You work really hard, you build something and you create something, which is sort of directly opposite to unions.”^[13]

Her comments concerning the work ethic of union workers received considerable criticism.^[14]

Uber controversy

On October 22, 2014, an article by Lacy on PandoDaily was published where she sharply criticised the "asshole culture" of ridesharing service Uber and said she intended to delete the app from her phone.^[15] On November 17, 2014, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith reported that Uber senior executive Emil Michael "outlined the notion of spending 'a million dollars'" to hire four top opposition researchers and four journalists. He said that team could help Uber fight back against the press by looking into "personal lives, your families". Michael was particularly focused on journalist Sarah Lacy, who accused Uber of “sexism and misogyny".^[16] Lacy wrote a sharp response critical of Uber's actions.^[17] The controversy was picked up by CNBC,^[18] Business Insider,^[19] and the New York Times Bits blog.^[20] Michael Wolff, the journalist who had arranged for and invited Smith to the private dinner where the controversial remarks were made, wrote a lengthy piece about the controversy, stating that Uber executives had believed that the event was off-the-record, but that he (Wolff) had failed to communicate the information to Smith.^[21]

Events

PandoDaily hosts periodic "fireside chat" events with influential people from the world of technology and startups. Past speakers have included Mark Pincus, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Tony Hsieh.^[22]

References

External links

• Official website
• PandoDaily's channel on YouTube