Merchant joining Omidyar Network as journalist in residence

Brian Merchant

Former Los Angeles Times tech columnist Brian Merchant is joining the Omidyar Network in its Reporters in Residence program.

The initiative, aimed at supporting ambitious journalism, will provide Merchant with a platform to continue his work in investigative journalism and technology.

The goal of the Reporters in Residence program is to enable a group of freelance journalists to devote more time to the type of deep, nuanced reporting that drives national conversations and informs policy debates. Merchant joins Helaine Olen, Walter Frick, and s.e. smith as current members of the program.

Merchant is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech” and the national bestseller “The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone.”

Merchant has held prominent positions at esteemed publications such as the Los Angeles Times and Motherboard, where he served as a tech columnist and senior editor, respectively. Additionally, he is the founder of Automaton, an investigative platform focused on AI and its impact on the workforce, as well as the co-founder of Terraform, Vice’s speculative fiction platform.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.