The New York Observer announced Tuesday that it would launch a site later this week called Betabeat.com that will cover the technology industry in and around the city.
The site plans to cover the latest ventures, start-ups and investments in Silicon Alley, profiling the personalities who rule the scene, offering social scorecards ranking top players, and analyzing trends and new products.
Ben Popper, a technology writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, Slate andThe Atlantic will launch the Betabeat.com tech vertical as founding editor under Observer editor Elizabeth Spiers and Observer.com managing editor Aaron Gell. Adrianne Jeffries, a former blogger for the popular tech site Read Write Web, will join the Betabeat.com team.
“Betabeat.com is an important new outgrowth of the Observer’s digital media platform,” said Jared Kushner, owner of the Observer Media Group, in a statement. “In January, we started a tech section of Observer.com and within weeks, it became one of the most active sections on the site. The NYC tech scene is vibrant, and Betabeat will be a great vehicle to cover it in depth.”
“Betabeat will allow us to go into greater, in-depth coverage of the movers and shakers in the techworld,” said editor in chief Spiers, who was a founding editor of Gawker.com and publisher and founder of Dealbreaker.com, Abovethelaw.com and Fashionista.com, as well as a former editor of New York and a columnist at Fortune. “This is an exciting new venture for us.”
