John C Abell

Current

New York Bureau Chief, wired.com at Conde Nast Publications

Education

New York University
Stuyvesant High School

Recommended

3 people have recommended John C

Connections

265 connections

Industry

Online Media

Websites

John C Abell’s Summary

I'm the New York Bureau Chief for wired.com and direct our coverage of business and disruptive media. I used to work 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.

When I started at Reuters the Portabubble was the road warrior's tool of choice. My first mobile reporting tool was a TRS-80 (which I still have). Now I won't leave home without my iPhone.

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

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 that the world was changing at either a frightening or an 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.