Tech journalist Swisher on why she and Mossberg left the WSJ

Kara Swisher

Roben Farzad of Full Disclosure interviewed longtime tech reporter Kara Swisher about her career at The Wall Street Journal and Recode.

Swisher and tech journalist Walt Mossberg led a technology conference All Things Digital at the Journal before leaving in January 2014 to start tech news site Recode.

“We were there for several years under Murdoch’s ownership. We were there longer than you think,” said Swisher. “We just sort of wanted to do something on our own. We weren’t big enough for them to care. We made a lot of money for reporters.”

Swisher noted that Rupert Murdoch, which bought The Journal in 2007 when he acquired parent company Dow Jones & Co., seemed more interested in investing in other media opportunities such as MySpace and The Daily.

Swisher and Mossberg began seeking ways to expand All Things Digital into other lines such as All Things Financial and All Thing Health.

“We had a homegrown hit, and they just weren’t interested in investing in it,” said Swisher. “…So we went out and looked for other funding and came back to them and gave them right of first refusal. People leave things all the time. They had their own game.”

To listen, go here.

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.