LA Times hires Merchant as tech columnist

It’s my great pleasure to announce that Brian Merchant is joining Business as our new technology columnist.

For years, I’ve been a fan and frequent envier of Merchant’s work on the tech beat, and I know some of you share that experience. Writing and editing for Motherboard, Gizmodo and other outlets, he has carved out a niche around the intersection of tech, labor and the environment — three of the topics we (and our readers) care about most. In his reporting and essays, he brings tremendous intelligence, curiosity and ethical questioning to bear on the companies and forces remaking our society, in a way that has impact. One memorable example: After he exposed the extent of Amazon’s efforts to court the oil industry, more than 4,000 Amazon workers signed a petition asking Jeff Bezos to do more on climate change — a significant milestone in the evolution of tech’s labor movement.

Merchant is also the author of “The One Device,” a bestseller about the development of the iPhone that was named one of FT’s best business books of 2017. His second book, “Blood in the Machine,” is about the Luddites’ rebellion against the 19th century technology of automation and its modern-day echoes. It will be published later this year. His writing has been published in the New York Times, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Guardian and in our own pages. On top of all that, he has produced short documentaries, written short fiction and co-founded Terraform, Vice’s speculative fiction vertical.

A Sacramento native and graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Merchant has some exciting ideas for covering what makes Los Angeles’ tech and startup scene unique and interesting, and for extending his inquiries and arguments into audio and video. He starts Monday.