The tech journalist who has become a celebrity

Joseph Bernstein of BuzzFeed News profiles Matt Swider, the U.S. editor-in-chief of TechRadar, a popular gadget site, who has become famous for his ability to report for readers where they can get a PlayStation 5.

Bernstein reports, “Yet Matt Swider, with his unassuming manner and unpolished presentation, has become just that: a star. On the one hand, the circumstances behind his fame are as complex as the flow of world trade. On the other, Swider is doing the oldest job in journalism: figuring out what people want to know and telling them as clearly and accurately as possible.

“Just as important, he’s doing it all the time. From his one-bedroom apartment on the East Side of Manhattan, behind a six-monitor setup, Swider has pioneered a form of always-on, participatory multiplatform service journalism — though he does most of his work on Twitter. He sets an alarm many nights for 3 am Eastern (12 am Pacific Time, when Amazon restocks the PS5), misses the occasional shower, and cuts short the occasional date. And he responds to DMs around the clock, mostly from ordinary people but occasionally from someone like Farrow, or actor Chris Williams (perhaps best known as Krazee-Eyez Killa on Curb Your Enthusiasm), or singer Darren Hayes, one half of the heartthrob ’90s pop duo Savage Garden.

“Still, as you might expect from Swider, who founded his first video game news site at the age of 14, the long hours are not exactly a hardship.”

Read more here.