Pressing Matters

We've had some Renaissance men and women on the show before, but I'm not sure if anyone can outdo James Maguire, the Executive Director of TechVoices.  He's a composer and pianist who has recorded an album of original songs. He's the writer of non-fiction books on American culture. He's currently working on a novel. And he's still found time to put together a 20-year...

Chris Preimesberger is one of the deans of tech journalism, known especially for his 15-year run at E-Week, including nearly 10 as the magazine's editor-in-chief. But tech reporting is, in many ways, the second half of his career. He started in the 70s as a sports writer for the LA Daily News, where he covered a guy named John Elway as a high school baseball player, and later USC, UCLA, and t...

Gene Marks didn't set out to be an influencer. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and be a CPA. And he has been for more than 30 years, first at KPMG and now as President of his own business, The Marks Group.  But some years ago, he offered to write a regular business column for The Philadelphia Inquirer and thus began a whole new aspect of Gene's career. Now, in addition...

Jeff Burt spent his childhood wandering the world with his Army dad and digging deep into fantasy and horror stories with his mom. They even wrote a few superhero stories together just for fun. So by the time he enrolled at Keene State in New Hampshire, Jeff was dedicated to storytelling. He split his time writing for the school newspaper, where he rose to executive editor his senior year, and DJi...

Sean Kinney is yet another one of our guests who had at least one parent, his mother in this case, who was a school teacher. That's clearly a theme for journalists. What's a bit new this time around is that his mom later went into the insurance world, along with his dad, asking the tough questions to get to the truth of the matter, just like a reporter does. Sean does the same, just as a...

Jon may not be a philosopher, but as a writer, analyst, and podcaster, he certainly has the trust of the B2B community. Jon joins Pressing Matters to tell us about his mission to disrupt B2B tech media and analysis, his thoughts on the high percentage of AI hype versus reality, and how he's managed to live in Massachusetts for more than 30 years without picking up an accent. Welcome to Pressi...

Emilia David comes from a long line of journalists. Her late mother, in fact, was a well-known and controversial Filipino political columnist. Her writing helped usher in women's reproductive rights in one of the world's most religiously conservative countries. So it was no surprise that Amelia got into journalism. Tech journalism, particularly AI, and in the United States, well, that&ap...

In more than three decades covering technology, John Swartz has met a lot of people: engineers, journalists, CEOs, and he's got a story for all of them. As a student at San Jose State, he was part of a newspaper staff that was led by AP's Mike Lidke and included at least a half dozen other pioneers in tech journalism. As a reporter for 17 years at USA Today, he witnessed online advertisi...

Back when Maribel Lopez left Forrester and became an independent analyst in 2008, she was taking a great risk. Independent analysts were not the force they are today. Social media was just getting going, blogs were still in their infancy, and podcasts were still called online videos.  But today, in part because of Maribel's pioneering work in the field, independent B2B tech analysts thrive. A...

We all know the internet has significantly impacted media's business model over the past three decades, and the conventional wisdom is that AI will do the same. Many believe it will replace reporters, lead to computer-generated news stories, increase misinformation, produce more fake news, and generally make a struggling industry even worse. But what if the opposite is true? What if AI can fr...

Whatever stodgy image you have in your mind of the typical finance news reporter, I guarantee it isn't Allie Garfinkle. And yet still relatively early in her career, Allie has established herself as one of the best in that business with a resume that includes Forbes, The Deal, Yahoo Finance, and of course Fortune, where she serves as senior finance reporter, co-chair of Fortune Brainstorm Tec...

This week, we're highlighting another great podcast, Misadventures in Marketing , that is produced by our friends at the American Marketing Association San Francisco (AMASF). In this, the 4th episode of Misadventures in Marketing, hosts Steve Haney and Peter Farago dive into the fun-filled world of corporate messaging, start-up style. They discuss the importance of creating a messaging house,...

Annie Saunders has been a tech journalist for several years now, but her diverse career background, local news, commodities, food, had her questioning why we'd even invite her on this show. No need to question yourself, Annie. Generalists make great tech journalists, as is evidenced by the reporting on AI, EV transportation, and climate tech for Morning Brew's Tech Brew, where Annie serv...

Julie Bort has been in tech journalism long enough to have had not one, but two tenures of 13 plus years – first at Network World and then at Business Insider, now editor of VCs and startups at TechCrunch. You might be surprised to learn that one of the most prolific voices in B2B Tech reporting nearly became a teacher, and you'll definitely be surprised to hear that she and her husband gave...

Jeremy Owens just landed a new gig as the latest editor in chief of the San Francisco Business Times. In this market, that's a minor miracle. Jeremy joined us to talk about that change, his early plans for the outlet's mission, and why he thinks San Francisco is the New Orleans of the West.  That's a new one for this episode of Pressing Matters from Big Valley Marketing, the podcast...

Are you ready for RSA 2025? Matt Kapko of CyberScoop is, and he definitely doesn't want to hear about AI, although he and I–and everyone listening to the podcast today–all know he will. In addition to AI, Matt joined us to talk about his early days singing in a punk rock band in Orange County, his time in a string of hyperlocal newspapers, and more of what he expects from RSA for our annual c...

Fred Vogelstein wanted to be a Moscow bureau chief. He did manage to get to Berlin as a student in the months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but he still hasn't been to Moscow. Instead, Fred became one of the most influential technology reporters of his generation, with stints at the Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Information, US News, and Fortune. Today he and fellow tech legend Oh Mal...

Unlike most of our previous guests, Catherine Sbeglia Nin didn't set out to be a reporter. She was a doctoral candidate in film theory. When realizing she was miserable, she figured she'd find other ways to tell stories after dipping her toes in the journalism waters. RCR Wireless, one of the magazines of record for Telco Wireless and networking, offered her a reporter job in 2019. Withi...

It's pretty rare these days to find anyone in tech media who has been at the same outlet for a quarter century. But Patrick Seitz has been covering the fascinating world of tech, finance, and the stock market for exactly that: 25 years at Investors' Business Daily. A Chicago-area native who cut his teeth covering courts and crime, Pat switched to covering tech in Washington DC in the ear...

Michael Krigsman doesn't call himself a journalist. Yes, he has produced 800 podcasts and videos in the past 11 years as the founder and host of CXOTalk, but he doesn't have a journalism degree or any editorial training, and his pieces are a mix of editorial and sponsored. That said, Michael does have an innate sense of story. He's not afraid to challenge a paying client to let him...

At the age of eight, Esther Ajao did something braver than most of us will do in our entire lives. Having spent her early years in her native Nigeria, raised by an extended family of grandparents and uncles, Esther moved across the ocean to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother, who had moved to America when Esther was just six months old. Removed from her home and a big family that helped shield he...

The path Michael Nuñez took to a seemingly straightforward gig – Editorial director at VentureBeat – was anything but direct. He covered the fun side of Hong Kong, the travel beat in Korea, and even wrote for an airline magazine in New York City after various tech writing gigs. He spent two years and change as head of marketing at a VC, but for coming on two years now, Michael has led VentureBeat,...

Hello everyone. We've got a very special episode for you this month as we celebrate the pod's second anniversary. Given that AI is the topic of the decade, not just in tech and journalism, but the whole wide world, we asked two of our favorite guests back to discuss where this is all going. Jennifer Strong of the Shift Podcast, who also was a Pulitzer Fellow for AI accountability. And Co...

In this edition of the Pressing Matters podcast, host Dave Reddy, head of Big Valley Marketing's Media and Influencers Practice, speaks with Jennifer Strong, a seasoned podcaster who began her radio career at 12 in Tennessee. Jennifer's extensive experience includes work with NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and MIT Tech Review. Now at Shift, she produces and hosts podcasts that delve into...

Diana Goovaerts initially got into the publishing business. But frustrated by that industry’s speed - or lack thereof - she shifted to the fast-paced world of journalism, first as a local reporter in her native North Jersey and, later, in the past decade, at WirelessWeek, GSMA and now Fierce Network, where she serves as executive editor. We’re all glad she made the change.  An expert on all things...