Tech news site VentureBeat announced several new appointments among its editorial staff, including a new managing editor.
These appointments come on the heels of a record year for the outlet, which saw a 48 percent increase in audience reach.
“I’m really psyched to see what this team comes up with in 2014,” Dylan Tweney, editor-in-chief of VentureBeat, in an email. “Reilly scored a nice scoop with his very first story — about how the NYPD is beta-testing Google Glass. Harrison has only been here a day and a half and he’s already published six stories. Jolie and Devindra have shown great leadership over the past few years. And the edit team is fired up. It’s exciting to work with journalists this passionate and committed!”
The promotions and new hires are:
- Jolie O’Dell, managing editor: O’Dell joined VentureBeat in 2011. Previously, she was at Mashable and ReadWrite. O’Dell has authored four books, including two books on consumer technologies, and is an active and passionate speaker at technology conferences such as DEMO, Intel’s AppUp, Node Summit, and VentureBeat’s many conferences.
- Harrison Weber, news editor (New York desk): Weber is a journalist based in New York City. A former Editor for The Next Web, he most recently helped launch FullStart, an education-focused publication powered by 100+ contributing entrepreneurs. Weber has been profiled by Forbes, Business Insider and Pando Daily.
- Devindra Hardawar, senior editor: Hardawar started VentureBeat’s New York bureau in 2010. As Senior Editor, he is focusing his expertise on mobile hardware and software. Hardawar is a regular guest on NPR, and has appeared as an expert source on CNBC.
- Christina Farr, investigative reporter: Since 2012, Farr has broken some of VentureBeat’s biggest stories. Among them, an exclusive first look at the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which landed VentureBeat on the TODAY Show, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, BBC, USA Today, The Guardian and countless other outlets around the world. Prior to VentureBeat, Farr was a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, The Next Web and Digital Trends. She has also appeared on CNBC, ABC and Fox News.
- Richard Byrne Reilly, reporter: Reilly joins the San Francisco desk of VentureBeat to cover Apple, Facebook, Twitter and other leading technology companies. His work has appeared in New York magazine, FoxNews.com, the New York Post, Red Herring, the San Francisco Examiner, the Pittsburgh Tribune, and many other publications.
Other recent appointments include reporters Jordan Novet (eg-GigaOm) and Eric Blattberg (ex-Crowdfunding.org), who joined the team in late 2013. Together, Novet and Blattburg fill out VentureBeat’s coverage of enterprise cloud and big data technologies.
Chris RoushChris 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.