Famed reporter and critically-acclaimed author, Sarah Lacy, is on a roll with her new tech publication startup. Within a few months of leaving TechCrunch, she soon announced that she would be starting her own startup publication to report the news she felt it should be done. It wasn’t that difficult for her when you think about it. This hard-working journalist has gone through it all and reported about quite possibly everything in tech that there is–or at least is aware of it. And with $2.5 million in the coffers, there seems to be a sense of freedom to allow Mrs. Lacy to go to town with it to help bring her publication to the level that it needs to be in order to dominate the market.
Each week, it seems that her startup, PandoDaily, is making new strides and bringing in new people, each one more shocking and experienced than the one before. Already she’s amassed an all-star team of journalists, including TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington (who is also an investor), former TechCrunch writers Paul Carr and Greg Kumparak, and a whole slew of contributors. They’ve even started to get the ball rolling on some live events where you can meet the PandoDaily team and connect with like-minded entrepreneurs, developers, designers, investors, etc. Unfortunately, the first one wasn’t up to par what you might expect, but that was surely a fluke–there’s more every month and the next one hopefully won’t disappoint.
But nevermind any of the bad luck that may have befallen PandoDaily, the bottom line is that there’s been some major inroads and a lot of news coming from this little publication, enough to get the notice of bloggers, startups, investors, and even fellow journalists. But who would have thought that it would have led to one of the biggest snags in tech news this year?
Just announced on PandoDaily, a major news figure in the tech industry has just signed on board to build something special. Highly-regarded reporter Kym McNicholas from Forbes will be signing up to join the PandoDaily team to help build a video department within the publication. Most recently, she was an anchor, reporter, and producer at Forbes and was successful in building the West Coast video department from scratch while also writing for both Forbes.com and Forbes magazine. And in a two-for-one deal, Ms. McNicholas will be bringing her long-time cameraman and editor, Anthony Nielsen, along for the ride. But it wasn’t that Ms. Lacy solicited Ms. McNicholas to join. Oh no, on the contrary, according to Ms. Lacy, the experienced journalist called her out of the blue asking to join. Ms. Lacy’s reply? “Dear God, yes! When can you start?”
This is a great snag for PandoDaily since they’ll be able to compete with the current offerings of TechCrunch and their video off-spring, TechCrunch TV. With a powerhouse reporter who has covered a variety of industries including business and technology, the PandoDaily team gains a great asset in someone who is quite familiar in video technology and how to use it in a way that will be sure to impress the socks off of the publication’s competitors.
Congratulations to Kym McNicholas and the PandoDaily team!
