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 historical joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. After launch, I remained with the team for 7 years, serving as Director of Operations as well as 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.

‍