Gawker: valleywag, joel dreyfuss

Red Herring can't update its masthead fast enough

Owen Thomas — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:37:35 EDT

I'm sure that for people at Red Herring, the troubled tech publication that has difficulty paying its bills, updating its masthead has long been the lowest priority. The list of staffers has seemed out of date every time I've checked. It has changed recently, I note — but not fast enough to track of the latest round of departures. Red Herring board members got an eyeful of the shrinking masthead when they arrived at the office last Friday and were greeted by a nearly empty newsroom. Even people still on payroll — whatever "payroll" means at the Herring — are often absent, ostensibly for "health reasons" (translation: job interviews). After the jump, a list of the fish who we hear have jumped out of the pond — or are trying to do so.

Recent departures no longer on the masthead:

Amy Coombs, Biosciences
Eydie Cubarrubia, Software, Open Source
Kamika Dunlap, Internet: mobile Internet, RH Video
Adena DeMonte, Fundings
Herbert Sample, Venture Capital, Finance

Recent departures still listed on the masthead:

Julie Chao, Senior Editor
Ryan Olson, Gaming

People still listed on the masthead with uncertain status:

Scott Morrison, Editor, RedHerring.com
We hear he's missed a lot of work recently.
Joel McCormick, Features Editor
"Technically there."
Falguni Bhuta, Software, Open Source
She's only been back in the office a couple of times since returning from leave, sources say.
Scott Martin, Venture Capital, Finance
Also missing a lot of work recently.
Cassimir Medford, Telecom, Wireless
May now be on freelance status — and it's not clear if he's getting paid.
Leah Messinger, Internet: social networking and general news
May be leaving shortly.
Andrea Quong, Cleantech
Looking for work, expected to leave soon.
Ken Schachter, Finance
Also may be on freelance status, with pay uncertain.
Marisa Taylor, Tech Culture
Missing work periodically, looking for a new job.
Sean Wolfe, Security, Defense, Space
Word is that Wolfe has moved from writing to a production role on a new online-video project.

Also uncertain:

All of the international bureaus; it's not clear whether the Herring is paying any of them.

New hire:

Mira Schwirtz, General News
Mira, we at Valleywag applaud your bravery.

Red Herring displays its ignorance

Owen Thomas — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:27:06 EDT

Still on deathwatch, Red Herring, the once-storied tech publication, is displaying its straitened circumstances even in its copy. The few articles on its website that aren't Reuters wire stories seem to be written by a skeleton crew, with equally skeletal thought behind them. Take, for example, Cassimir Medford's puff piece on Ooma, the also-doomed VOIP startup. Medford, ostensibly Red Herring's "telecom and wireless reporter," includes this doozy:

The name Ooma was chosen because it invokes curiosity, Mr. Frame said. Also it has four letters and the IP address was readily available.

Here's what's wrong with that — and what it shows is wrong with the Herring.

A domain name, of course, is the user-friendly address you type into a Web browser, like "redherring.com." An IP address, on the other hand, is a series of numbers like "65.206.214.61," assigned to a machine connected to the Internet, used by other machines to look it up. A telecom reporter who doesn't know the difference between an IP address and a domain name, writing about a startup which fundamentally misunderstands its market. They sound well-matched.

I don't mean to pick on Medford, of course. The error isn't a reflection on him as much as it is on his bosses. At a stable, well-funded publication, I'm sure he'd do well as a junior reporter learning the beat under the tutelage of experienced editors. And he'd be getting a steady paycheck, to boot. At the Herring, of course, he's managed, if at all, by Joel Dreyfuss, an editor-in-chief who's distracted by efforts to save the company from owner Alex Vieux's financial mismanagement. With sloppily reported, poorly edited stories like this, though, I'd ask which will die first: The Red Herring brand, or the company which owns it?

Om Malik's fishy hires

Owen Thomas — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:15:04 EDT

For Earth2Tech, the new green blog from GigaOm, founder Om Malik has hired Adena DeMonte away from the Red Herring, the struggling publication we've put on a deathwatch. That's got to be the last straw for Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss (pictured, right). Rumor has it that Dreyfuss at one point told Malik to stop poaching the Herring's best writers. Malik, of course, is a former Herring writer, but the publication in its current form and under current management bears no relationship, aside from the name, to the storied tech magazine Malik worked for earlier in this decade. Why Dreyfuss feels Malik's not entitled to fish in his pond is a mystery to me — unless it's just a sign of his general frustration with trying to bail out a sinking ship.