TECH TALK
Q+A WITH NELLIE BOWLES '06
With the world of technology unfolding right before her journalistic eye, Nellie Bowles '06 has an ultra modern view of what endures. The former editor of El Batidor, a graduate of Columbia University and a Fulbright Scholar, Bowles moved swiftly into her career as a technology reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle before she was scooped up by the recently launched Re/Code, a smart and sassy tech platform that publishes only digitally from its San Francisco headquarters. Sarah Kidwell caught up with Bowles (electronically, of course) in between deadlines, for some insight into her beat.
Q: You're covering a world that moves with warp
Q: How do you stay connected to what is
speed, and we're guessing that it makes your
current and up-and-coming?
work both exciting and a bit unnerving. How does it feel to you?
I also read a lot. I don't Tweet as much as I should, but I consume most of my news on Twitter. I read Buzzfeed and Gawker and Vice
A: I'm secretly a very old woman who thinks
pretty religiously. I also get the Times and the
a good night out is pinot noir and a caesar
New Yorker and like to keep in touch with the
A: The tech boom (this whole mosh pit of
salad, so "staying hip and current" does not
legacy publications.
startups and venture capitalists) is the most
come naturally, but I actually see this as a
interesting thing happening in the U.S. right
very good thing. I like to think I approach the
Q: Is Tweeting, Instagramming, and posting
now, far as I can tell. It's the weirdest, the
youths and their apps and activities like an
video part of your job description as associate
most influential. And it's the fastest paced.
archeologist.
editor of tech culture?
So it's absolutely exciting to cover.
The key is to keep people of all ages in
Also, let's be real, I do feature stories
your life and to listen to them. I have younger
A: It is! As it ought to be, even if I'm not a
rather than breaking news (I write about 3-5
cousins and little sister (Cate Class of '12)
good Tweeter. Basically the job description is
stories a week rather than 15, like some of my
who keep me in the loop on things and taught
to use all the tools you can to tell good stories.
colleagues), so I have a bit of a more leisurely
me what Snapchat is, etc.
So I take some of my own shaky-hand video. I
pace with it all. Nellie Bowles gets camera-ready before a live appearance on CNBC to discuss her story about the tech business in Las Vegas. It's a perfect time for a selfie.
take my own pictures and also work with our staff photog. I work with Recode's partners at NBC to bring TV elements to stories. We're starting a radio show. A modern reporter is a multimedia creature, so it's definitely part of the job. Q: Keep us up with your travels – you've been to Burning Man, Las Vegas, Silicon Valley, tech campuses and more. Would you describe any of those as the most interesting story you've covered? A: Burning Man was probably the most interesting week of reporting for me. I drove out to the desert and had to file every day without really knowing what I would cover or how it would go or, importantly, where I could get Internet. But I think it was the best week of writing I'd done in my career so far.
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