Business North Carolina editor David Mildenberg writes about longtime tech reporter Rick Smith.
Mildenberg writes, “Rick Smith got the journalism bug at age 15 in Mooresville, Indiana, writing high school sports stories for the local paper. After attending a commuter university in Indianapolis, he worked at newspapers in Indiana and Texas before landing at the News & Observer in Raleigh in 1986.
“Ahead of the curve, Rick saw the potential of the Internet. He was part of the early 1990s efforts of both the Daniels family at the N&O and Raleigh broadcaster Jim Goodmon’s WRAL to provide digital services. That included Interpath, an early Internet service provider that was later acquired by Carolina Power & Light.
“More of a journalist than a business guy, Rick spent most of the past 30 years writing about technology executives and their businesses in Wake and Durham counties. After co-authoring a book on Internet strategy in 1997, he and the late Allen Maurer started Local TechWire in 2002.
“The publication, later renamed WRAL TechWire after an investment by the Goodmons, has long kept a close eye on the Triangle tech sector, which is a critical growth engine that has helped set North Carolina’s economy apart from other Southern states. Rick, who left the company in 2023, credits recently retired WRAL executive John Conway for building the broadcaster’s strong online presence.”
Read more here.
