About

I’m Rafe Needleman. I’ve been covering technology and business since 1988. I started at InfoWorld as a reviews editor. Following that, I launched Corporate Computing magazine, and then moved on to become manager of advanced technologies for ZD Labs. In 1995, I became editor-in-chief of Byte magazine. I joined CNET as editor of CNET.com, shortly after it started in 1997.

In late 1998 I moved to Red Herring, as editorial director of the Events department. After a year I became editor of Redherring.com and started writing Catch of the Day, a column about startups, which was emailed to over 150,000 subscribers every weekday.

After Red Herring folded, I continued to review cutting edge technology, both online and in print, for a Business 2.0 column called What’s Next.

From 2003 to 2012, I was back at CNET. I launched the Web 2.0 reviews site Webware for CNET, and then moved to News.com, covering emerging tech and startups. I also hosted several podcasts, including The Real Deal, Reporters’ Roundtable, and Buzz Out Loud.

Today I work at Evernote. I’m working with the platform team and with the independent developers writing apps for Evernote. And I’m writing a column about startups, called Opportunity Notes. It’s also available as a podcast.

I get a lot of pitches. So I started this blog. Sam Whitmore interviewed me about it.

You can pitch me here. I actually do want to hear from you.

The views expressed on this blog are not those of my employer.