We recently had the chance to sit down and chat with Steven Levy (@StevenLevy), the Editor in Chief of Medium’s Backchannel, for the SeedStories podcast. Steven is a longtime technology writer and award-winning author of seven books, along with being an entrepreneur in own right in creating and growing Backchannel.
He was previously a senior writer for Wired, following a dozen years as chief technology writer and a senior editor for Newsweek. His obituary on Steve Jobs during his time at Wired in 2011 was the most read story of all-time on Wired.com.
Books to his name include Hackers, a history of the beginning, growth, and rise of the use of computers by people outside of the big businesses and governments and In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives – widely thought to be the de facto biography on the company.
Our wide-ranging conversation touches on:
- What excited him most in his recent trip to SXSW.
- The government’s recruitment strategy in Silicon Valley.
- What he did when he was handed a blank canvas in starting Backchannel on Medium.
- His strategy with muffin top journalism for growing Backchannel and his litmus test for technology stories that matter.
- What metrics he, Ev Williams and the rest of the Medium team look at as the industry moves away from unique views and driving visitors to Websites.
- His role in native advertising efforts on Backchannel, such as their partnership with Google on the future of security.
- How he thought about joining Grantland, as well as, what the arrival of The Ringer and Bill Simmons at Medium means for the future of the platform – and maybe journalism.
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