John Abell

I'm Wired's New York Bureau Chief and direct our coverage of business and disruptive media. Before that I spent 26 years at Reuters, where my career was evenly split between pre-and post-Internet eras.

Pre, I was a reporter, editor and bureau chief. Post, I built the Internet's first real-time news feed, created Reuters' multimedia desk and was the founding editor of reuters.com. because these days I'm doing a weekly column for the Baron.

When I started at Reuters the Portabubble was the road warrior's tool of choice. My first mobile reporting tool was a TRS-200. Now I won't leave home without my iPhone or iPad — which I use to write, record, photograph and publish from pretty much anywhere.

I have been a news dictationist, reporter, correspondent, editor and a bureau chief and a consultant on journalism best practices with the Committee of Concerned Journalists.

I started Reuters New Media’s first joint venture — the Reuters/Variety Entertainment Report — and was running this service out of the offices of Daily Variety in Hollywood when, in the early '90s, the Internet started being something you didn't just see in quotes.

The day Mosaic was released was positively life affirming, in a Roy Neary sort of way. It was clear the world was changing at a frightening and exhilarating pace, and that I had to be part of it.

A chance to help create the original reuters.com was my ticket across the digital divide. But in truth, as most traditional journalists who became new media foot soldiers will tell you, going from mainstream to online was more a pivot than a leap.

The "old days" were punctuated with all sorts of soul-searching, student congress-esque debates on "new media journalism" and the new ethics, practices and roles. But a few things became resoundingly clear to me:

* Good journalism has nothing to do with the medium.
* If the medium is the message, you're not doing it right.
* Nothing is more important than aspiring to be correct.

Websites:

• Company Website
• Personal Website
• Google+

Groups and Associations:

Online News Association, Committee of Concerned Journalists

• 
  AlertNet
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  Club ex-Reuters
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  NYU Alumni
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  Online News Association
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  Reuters Worldwide
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  THE BARON
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  The Content Wrangler Community
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  The Reuter Society
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  The Wired Tech Layoff Tracker