Om Malik’s death has prompted a round of tributes from writers, editors and friends who describe a journalist with an unusual mix of persistence, precision and open-door generosity. The details are small, which is usually where the useful truth lives.
Fred Vogelstein, Malik’s partner at Crazy Stupid Tech, wrote that Malik had told him during a meeting at San Francisco’s South Park that he was moving to emeritus status at venture firm True Ventures and planned to spend more time writing. Vogelstein said the two disagreed about what Wired should be doing, but shared a view that too much attention sat on big tech while a broader wave of technical invention was getting too little coverage.
That was the seed of a collaboration, according to Vogelstein. It also reads like a neat summary of Malik’s operating system: pay attention before the room has decided what deserves attention.
Mentor, critic and recruiter
Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern wrote on Threads that Malik’s work helped push her toward tech journalism. Stern said she began reading his site while working at a public relations agency after college, and that it inspired her to start blogging.
Stern said Malik later tried to hire her. After she chose another path, she said, he still sent notes praising her work and would often comment on her reviews. Her own review of him: generous with time, honest in criticism and encouraging to younger journalists.
Casey Newton, also writing on Threads, said Malik gave him two durable lessons. The first came when Malik interviewed him while Newton was a young reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle and told him he did not think Newton could handle GigaOm because newspaper writers were too slow. Newton said the exchange taught him he needed to leave print media. Years later, Newton said, Malik offered another piece of advice over drinks with reporters: do not name a blog after yourself.
The persistence file
Jason Hiner, in a LinkedIn post drawing from the 2016 book Follow the Geeks, co-written with Lyndsey Gilpin, described how Malik broke into tech journalism after years of rejection. Hiner said Malik once told him that for three years, every day brought a rejection.
The breakthrough, as Hiner recounts it, came through David Churbuck at Forbes. Malik left repeated voicemails, sent a fax and kept pressing for a chance to help Forbes put its magazine on the web. Churbuck ignored him at first. After a colleague suggested bringing him in, Churbuck agreed to one short interview. Hiner wrote that Churbuck hired Malik after 15 minutes.
Jim Nielsen, in a tribute on his blog, recalled receiving a direct message from the @om account and then realizing the sender had more than 1 million followers. Nielsen wondered how he had appeared on Malik’s radar at all. John Gruber, who gathered several of the remembrances at Daring Fireball, put it more bluntly: Malik seemed to read everything.
Photographer Christopher Michel, described by Gruber as a close friend of Malik, published a large gallery of portraits titled Om the Great.
Andrew Sasaki shared another story with Gruber. Sasaki said he met Malik briefly at a New York tech event around 2008 and asked, “Om like Om Malik?” Malik replied, amused, “Yes, exactly like Om Malik.” Years later, after the iPad launched, Sasaki emailed Malik a question about early development around the new platform. Malik replied after four days, apologized for the delay and sent a researched answer, according to Sasaki. The signature line brought back the earlier joke: “Exactly Like Om Malik.”
This story draws on original reporting from Daring Fireball.
