Two weeks ago the venerable UK newspaper The Guardian, facing budget cuts, fired new media columnist and author Paul Carr. Their loss is our gain – he now works for TechCrunch.
Most recently Carr wrote a weekly column for The Guardian called Not Safe For Work. He’s known for his bitingly sarcastic enthusiasm for tech companies. A classic post was this summary of last year’s Le Web conference in Paris (he and organizer Loic Le Meur are somehow now good friends).
Carr has also written numerous books. His most recent, Bringing Nothing To The Party: True Confessions Of A New Media Whore, is a bizarre story of his not-entirely-successful attempt to become a famous Internet billionaire. He is also working on his next book, which he says “is about the year I spent living virtually as a digital nomad. Think Down And Out In Paris And London meets Fear And Loathing In, well, everywhere.”
Carr will write a weekly column for TechCrunch and TechCrunch Europe each Saturday morning. Look for his first post at the end of this week. You may also see his name pop up from time to time on other posts as well.
Welcome, Paul.
Just a dash of snarkiness
Paul, your profile on CrunchBase is simply hilarious. Did you write it?
Yes I did.
Its a nice profile especially dont think about hiring him!
Oh, geez, now the pictures of me kissing Paul in London will get some play!
Congrats Paul!
well honestly it’s more like “congrats, techcrunch.” He’s solid.
Mike: you are doing the best hiring in the business. Take a vacation so the rest of us can catch up.
+1 on the best hiring part
He, is that the same Paul? I look forward to his writing. Welcome Paul!
(And Mike, this snap is stunning).
Yeah, this is the same Paul. He called that party a “proper festival.” Oh yes it was!
Yes, I remember the pink/purple wigs. And oh yes, Mike called it a proper festival. Probably that inspired him to choose Paul.
Brilliant move Mike
looking forward to Saturday mornings even more now.
it’ll be saturday night in Ireland
we’re aiming for 11 am PST on Saturday.
well that doesn’t really suit me, would you mind moving it please
of course. we’ll set ireland up for 11 am PST.
excellent, if you could move MG weekdays to that time it would also be quite helpful, its my cigar and slippers 30 minutes
Sure Pat, I’ll work on that as well.
I wish I were British too.
me three
Highly overrated, and you’d end up bitter and twisted, consumed by your own sarcasm, trapped on a tiny island, afraid of Europeans and still thinking you’re globally relevant. Better off across the pond.
The accent is totally worth it.
I’m British and I don’t have an accent. It’s all you damn foreigners that have accents!
yeah srsly
Sounds perfect.
Afraid of Europeans? No. Mildly irritated by Europeans? Of course, and I include the Liberal Democrats in that.
Being globally relevant isn’t all it’s cracked up to be these days. You can’t have an empire worth a damn without the UN and human rights groups kicking up a fuss.
If the USA wants to pay for the worlds security in cash and lives, it is free to do so.
yeah but you don’t love us either
Us? Europeans, Americans or the Lib Dems?
I was speaking as a Brit
european
Paul, I hope this means you’ll be using that “[X] is the taint of the internet” line we came up with in NYC in a TC post. Make it a headline and you will be well on your way to beating @parislemon at his own game.
Between this and Twitter, one of you really need to fill in this blank for me.
It’s all about the blank, mister.
my site should be it
Looking forward to the column – Congrats Paul (or congrats TC – not sure which of you is luckier).
Welcome Dude!
Paul is awesome.. I’ve seen him break up some pretty intense bar fights!
Break up bar fights? Are you sure we’re talking about the same Paul? I’ve only seen him close to getting *in* some pretty intense bar fights.
Yes, and wearing unique wigs, kissing or being kissed by techies…
+1 and I ain’t even kidding
dude, im serrrrious. read this article from him:
http://www.guar...l-carr-charging
Another great hire, congrats.
Well done Paul, will be good to see you here.
FINALLY, a card-carrying journo joins TC
erick, mike butcher and sarah may have something say about that.
I’m probably forgetting someone else too.
I had a card once. I think it was when I was on Typewriters.
MG please train him in the ways of the weekend bitchmeme.
Oh I think he knows them, and knows them well. Really looking forward to them!
looking forward to your work
seymourcards.com
but how come you still won’t do a weekly vlogger series?
Now I will know Paul Carr too, MG is good and writes nice articles, I knew him after he joined TechCrunch.
Welcome Paul – TechCrunch Europe readers are in for a treat. Good to finally work with you after all these years of, well, drinking together!
congrats man.
I am a TechCrunch Chinese reader, I like it very much and read its good tech article well…:)
Nice move Mike. Take over all of the perspective writers from newspapers. Make newspapers fail even faster
Paul should be OK since none of the TechCrunch readers (like these posters) can read English.
Welcome Paul.
Good move Mike. I just hope he’s not as moronic as MG. Techcrunch has a good set of writers sans Seigler — he’s the worst.
+1
mg is a set on his own
Mr.Paul can add more value in TechCrunch.
We should welcome Mr.Paul with warmth.
Mr. Paul feels welcome in warmth. His thanks.
Great hire! Very astute move to scoop Paul up.
Finally a proper trained Journalist,
Makes a good change to the coverage and spam MG lines up on the Techcrunch page.
Good move by TC congrats.
Looking forward to his writing. Love his principles! – http://www.paul...ment-of-ethics/
Fantastic.
Welcome tot the techcrunch team
Paul Carr’s Guardian column was dire – no readers, so no surprise he was sacked.
Everyone finds their level eventually.
On the other hand the Guardian kept Jack Schofield!
With decision making like that no wonder they are having to cut people.
Lol, his jab at Le Web was totally hilarious!
Well, I’ve just read his Blog @ paulcarr.com, first impression: wtf….hhmmm, well Mike hired him and he uses to work for The Guardian, at least NO “follow me on twitter”, probably no twitter cheerleader (can’t beat MG on that)….Congrats and welcome, looking forward to read from you.
Finally , someone with a sense of humor on techcrunch
Does TC need great writers in India? I have a guy who we are looking to bring to India from SF. He’s an ex Venturebeat writer and wannabe Journo. MG, when are you moving to India again?
I seem to have stumbled in on your social media circle jerk, I think I’ll just leave you to it.
‘grats paul.
so what circle jerk are u attending next?
Awesome
I enjoyed the column thoroughly, as well as the book, can’t wait to see the first article. Congrats to y’all.
Paul’s CrunchBase profile is hilarious.
Great picture… that could only be improved by the addition of an ascot.
what do you mean “somehow now good friends”
you could even remove the somehow!
congratulations to both, happy LeWeb “somehow” connected you two, looking forward to this years classic Paul Carr column at LeWeb. We are planning a special welcome package for Paul. Straight in the Sauna with no wifi and no food.
At least it’ll be warm.
Good news is my new deadline means I can cover *both* days this year. Double the fun.
best. crunchbase. profile. ever.
Looking at his profile, it is like he is one of us. Waiting to see how he responds when the comments for his post gets nasty and ugly.
TC is creating a real powerhouse here!
there goes the neighborhood….
oh, sarah, uh, this is awkward. didn’t you get the email? we’ve had budget cuts (these new hires are expensive) and, well, we had to let you go.
world’s first firing an employee in a blog comment section. where is our world heading to?
I saw Paul recently when I was in the UK with Sarah and the other “Traveling Geeks.” Sharing a taxi with Paul and Craig “Craiglist” Newmark was interesting. Craig couldn’t understand the Brit drinking culture, while Paul valiantly epitomizes the hard drinking hack culture, sometimes single-handedly. Welcome.
welcome paul!
Good god, this is exactly what the valley needs,
Let Daniel B follow Paul with a flip cam to every tech event that has an open bar and watch the magic unfold
haha, Paul and I had an interesting night at TechFellows that I’m sure none of us want to know
I also had the pleasure of spending quality time with Paul when I was in London recently with Sarah and the rest of the Traveling Geeks. Even though Paul may seem like an obnoxious, pretentious Brit when you meet him, I actually found him to be extremely smart, witty, and surprisingly interesting. Way to go Paul! Well deserved and I very much look forward to reading your column from now on a regular basis!
I also had the pleasure of spending quality time with Paul when I was in London recently with Sarah and the rest of the Traveling Geeks. Even though Paul may seem like an obnoxious, pretentious Brit when you meet him, I actually found him to be extremely smart, witty, and surprisingly interesting. Way to go Paul! Well deserved and I very much look forward to reading your column from now on a regular basis!
Brilliant move on all parts, congrats.
I’m looking forward to his posts.
Love Pauls writting, so this move to techcruch making me happy…
he’s a good writer.
The Guardian has already taken his ‘media whore’ book out of their bookstore.
http://www.guar...N=9780297855453
mmm…classy.
oops– my mistake. Guardian Bookstore is currently down.
Where is the Saturday post by Paul Carr? Was he fired his first day on the job?