Casey Newton (born June 19, 1980) is an American technology journalist,[2] a former senior editor at The Verge,[3] and the founder of, and writer for, the Platformer newsletter.[2]
Career
Newton had been covering the Arizona State Legislature for The Arizona Republic, with an interest in technology as a hobby. Kristen Go, a former coworker at The Arizona Republic, invited him to work at the San Francisco Chronicle to cover tech companies and new technology.[4][3] Later, he was a blogger and senior writer for CNET[5][3] until 2013. Afterward, between 2013 and 2020, he covered Silicon Valley at The Verge[6][2] and became a senior editor.[3] During his time at The Verge, he wrote a daily newsletter called The Interface.[7][8] His reporting on the effects of content moderation on workers (resulting in PTSD[9]) has led to a contracting company cutting ties with Facebook.[10]
Platformer
In 2020, he left to create his own freemium newsletter on Substack called Platformer,[6][2][11] with the paid subscription costing US$10 per month.[4] Substack incentivized authors with advances, which Newton turned down, but accepted healthcare stipends.[2] As of January 2024[update], Platformer had 170,000 subscribers to the free edition.[12] In January 2024, Newton decided to move Platformer off Substack to Ghost, in response to Substack's policies and handling of pro-Nazi publications on its platform.[13]
Hard Fork
In late 2022, he began a weekly technology news podcast for the New York Times, called Hard Fork, co-hosting with Kevin Roose.[14] Roose, in 2021, praised Newton with having "opinions [that] hold sway among social media executives".[15]
