Om Malik: Pioneering Blogs (Part 7)

Om navigates his destiny through the market downturn …

SM: Red Herring crashed too didn’t it? OM: Red Herring lasted a bit. As the market started to turn down, I think it was in September 2001, just before 9/11, I got a chance to go back to New York because I had not felt comfortable living in San Francisco. When 9/11 happened, that delayed the decision, but I ended up going back and working for Red Herring from NY. I saw the magazine shrink and shrink. In February 2003, when it died, that is when Business 2.0 hired me. The precondition was that I had to move back to San Francisco. I decided to stop trying to fight my fate, and realized that my destiny was to live in the Bay area so there was no need to resist it.

SM: Had you already started the blog by then? OM: The blog is actually in its sixth year now. I started it on December 13th 2001 as a blog. Before that it existed as a website. I used to have a newsletter called Dot Com Wallah, and I used to send that out and post that email on the blog with my resume. It was not really anything major at that point. My resume was my articles, but it became more interactive in December 2001. We added Moveable Type.

SM: You wrote the book, Broadbandints, around that time as well? OM: I was basically working on the book while I was in New York. The timing was such that as I arrived at San Francisco it came out about two months later. It basically worked out OK.

SM: By 2004 you are working at Business 2.0, and your blog is starting to take shape in its current format? OM: That is right. It had not totally evolved, it was only getting 500-800 readers a day.

[to be continued]

[Part 6]
[Part 5]
[Part 4]
[Part 3]
[Part 2]
[Part 1]

This segment is part 7 in the series : Om Malik: Pioneering Blogs
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