Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher
Born	(1963-01-25) January 25, 1963
Occupation	Columnist
Spouse(s)	Megan Smith (Separated)
Children	2
Website	http://recode.net/author/karaswisher/

Kara Swisher (born January 25, 1963) is an American technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and an author and commentator on the Internet. She created and wrote Boom Town, a column which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and online, and subsequently appeared on All Things Digital, which she founded and served as the co-executive editor with Walt Mossberg. On January 1, 2014, Swisher and Mossberg struck out on their own, with a new site, Re/code, based in San Francisco, California.

Early life

Swisher graduated from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service with a B.S. degree in 1984. She wrote for The Hoya, Georgetown's school newspaper. In 1985, she received her M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.

Career

Swisher worked at an alternative newspaper in Washington, D.C. and The Washington Post, where she started as an intern and was later hired full-time. She joined The Wall Street Journal in 2003 and launched the AllThingsD conference and later expanded it into a website.

Swisher wrote many stories about the World Wide Web and Internet policy issues and wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. During that period, she was cited as the most influential reporter covering the Internet by the Industry Standard magazine. She is the author of aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web, published by Times Business Print Books in July 1998. The sequel, There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future, was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Print Books.

In partnership with her fellow Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, Swisher created, produced, and hosted the Journal's annual D: All Things Digital conference, in which top technology leaders, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs appear on stage with or without prepared remarks, or slides, and are interviewed by the two columnists.

Swisher has also served as a judge for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC BigApps competition in NYC.

Personal life

Swisher was married to Google executive Megan Smith and together they have two children. They are currently separated.

Bibliography

• aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web, published by Times Business Books in July 1998.
• There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future
• "Twelve Things the World Should Toss Out: Computer Keyboards", published in the Washington Post online, May 7, 2010.

External links

• a recording of Kara talking at a Beta Gamma Sigma event in San Francisco
• Kara Swisher on Twitter