October 11, 2006
Profile - The Gadget King
The Gadget King is a chapter in a book Paul Gillin is writing called The New Influencers to be published next year. It offers interesting insight into the beginnings of the most popular sites in the blogosphere: Engadget and Gizmodo, and the founder of them both, Peter Rojas.
No one has done more to legitimize blogging as a news medium than Peter Rojas and no one has profited more handsomely from it. It’s an unexpected distinction for the 31-year-old Detroit native, who holds a master’s in critical theory from a British university and who was unemployed as recently as 2002.
Both consistently rank in the top 10 blogs on Technorati. Both serve a community of hard-core consumer electronics enthusiasts. Together, they are arguably the most important sources of news in their markets online or in print.
... It was Nick Denton who planted the idea that the blog could maybe make some money. Rojas demurred at first. “If I’m going to spend an afternoon writing, it might as well be a pitch” for a job or freelance assignment, he says.
“What if you could make a living with a blog?” Denton asked.
Preposterous. In 2002, no one was blogging for their bread and butter. But Peter Rojas was unemployed, so what the hell. He and Denton concocted the idea for a blog about consumer gadgets. They called it Gizmodo and Peter Rojas was the first and only writer.
[via New Influencers book - draft chapters for review via peter.roj.as]
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2006/10/013790.htm
