Business Insider hires tech reporter Drange

Matt Drange is joining Business Insider as a senior correspondent on the newly created tech features team, headed by Alexei Oreskovic.

Drange has reported on money and power in Silicon Valley since 2012. Last year he won SABEW’s Larry Birger Award as the best young business journalist in the country. Drange previously worked for Protocol, the new Politico-backed publication, and before that The Information, Forbes magazine and the Center for Investigative Reporting. His scoops frequently make deep use of public records, an area of expertise he often shares with colleagues and teaches to student journalists.

Drange’s reporting has sparked Congressional inquiries, led to internal policy changes at Facebook, Google and eBay, prompted a state ethics investigation and spurred cities across the country to ditch contracts with a prominent tech vendor. In 2016, Drange and his then-colleague, Ryan Mac, revealed that billionaire investor Peter Thiel had secretly bankrolled an invasion of privacy lawsuit that brought Gawker Media to its knees; their reporting served as the foundation for a subsequent Netflix documentary.

Drange has twice been a Loeb Award finalist and has received numerous journalism awards.

Drange is currently a fellow at the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, where he’s reporting on the legality of corporate nondisclosure agreements in Silicon Valley. He’s a member of SABEW’s First Amendment Committee and also sits on SPJ NorCal’s Freedom of Information Committee.

Drange received a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Education, where he studied investigative reporting, and graduated from Humboldt State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.