Type of site
|
Technology journalism |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Sarah Lacy |
Editor | Paul Carr |
Website | www |
Launched | January 16, 2012 |
PandoDaily is a web publication that offers technology news, analysis, and commentary, with a focus on Silicon Valley and startup companies. It billed itself at launch as "the site of record for Silicon Valley".
PandoDaily was started by former TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy on January 16, 2012. The name was inspired by a tree colony in Utah, Pando, whose massive root system covers 106 acres and is continually sprouting new stems or trunks, even after wildfires have destroyed existing trunks. "It’s the perfect metaphor for what I love about Silicon Valley. It’s not just individual hot startups of-the-moment; it’s that unique startup ecosystem that continually shoots up new companies no matter how frothy or scorched everything above ground gets", she wrote.
At launch, PandoDaily had a number of staff writers and guest contributors including Michael Arrington (founder of TechCrunch), Paul Carr, M.G. Siegler, and Farhad Manjoo. Because of a disagreement, Michael Arrington and M.G. Siegler stopped writing for PandoDaily, but they acquired new technology writers including Greg Kumparak (formerly of TechCrunch).
In November 2013, it was announced that PandoDaily had acquired NSFW Corp, a politics-and-humor website founded by technology journalist Paul Carr. PandoDaily stated that the goal of the acquisition was to double down on investigative reporting. Carr then became editorial director of PandoDaily.
As of 2013, PandoDaily has acquired the URL "pando.com" of the defunct Pando's peer-to-peer file-sharing website.
In late June 2015, PandoDaily switched to a subscription model, with most of their articles behind a paywall. Any subscriber could unlock an article for 48 hours (with a limit of 20 unlocks per month) and the authors and editors generally unlocked recent articles and tweeted them to readers. Their main reason for the change was to maintain their editorial independence and integrity without being too dependent on particular advertisers (for revenue) or particular investors.