Io9

Last updated
io9
Io9 Logo.svg
Type of site
Blog
Owner G/O Media
URL gizmodo.com/io9
LaunchedJanuary 2, 2008;15 years ago (2008-01-02)
Current statusActive

io9 is a sub-blog of the technology blog Gizmodo that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology, futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under Gawker Media. [1] In 2015, io9 became a part of Gizmodo as part of a reorganization under parent company Gawker. [2]

Contents

History

Independent Site (2008-2015)

The blog was created in 2008 by Annalee Newitz under Gawker Media. Newitz had been approached by Gawker shortly after another of Newitz's projects, other magazine, ceased print publication—and was asked to start a science and science-fiction blog. [3] Staff at founding included Charlie Jane Anders, Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG), Graeme McMillan (Newsarama), Kevin Kelly (Joystiq, Cinematical) and feminist retro-futuristic writer Lynn Peril (author of Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons). [1] Newitz described the ethos of the site as about looking into the future and science fiction. [1]

In February 2010, it was named one of the top 30 science blogs by Michael Moran of The Times ' Eureka Zone blog, who wrote, "Ostensibly a blog for science fiction enthusiasts, io9 finds space for pieces on cutting-edge technology, the wilder fringes of astronomy and the more worrying implications of grey goo." [4]

After seven years as head editor, in January 2014, Newitz became the new editor at Gizmodo , while co-founder Anders remained as editor at io9—as part of a plan by Gawker to integrate io9 with Gizmodo. io9's 11-member staff joined Gizmodo's 22 person staff, under Newitz's overall supervision. One of the reasons for the merger was to better coordinate content: io9 is a science and science fiction blog, while Gizmodo is a technology blog, which resulted in what Gawker assessed as roughly a 12% rate of overlapping content. [5]

After a nearly eight-year run, Newitz retired from both io9 and Gizmodo on November 30, 2015, explaining that they had grown to disliking managing both sites at once and having taken them away from their passion of writing articles. Newitz moved to take a position as tech culture editor at Ars Technica . Anders remained as head editor of io9. [6] [7] Besides Newitz, several other longtime core staff members left their positions at io9 during this transitional period. [8] [9]

Sub-blog of Gizmodo (2015 - present)

On 26 April 2016, Charlie Jane Anders left the site to focus her attention on her then untitled second novel and Rob Bricken took over as editor. [10]

On July 31, 2018, Rob Bricken stepped down as editor of io9, saying that managing the site was taking up too much time and he would rather spend writing articles for it. [11] His place as editor was filled by Jill Pantozzi, former editor-in-chief of The Mary Sue, who had originally joined io9 as a managing editor [12] and took up the deputy editor position after Bricken's departure. [13] [14]

Following the departure of Pantozzi, who left the site entirely in December 2021, [15] James Whitbrook, who had been an io9 staff writer since 2014, was made the new Deputy Editor in charge of io9. [16]

In 2023 io9 was amongst sites owned by G/O Media that published AI written articles to significant backlash. There was internal dissent to this decision, with James Whitbrook publishing a statement denouncing the decision to publish such material. [17]

List of editors

EditorTenureRefs
Annalee Newitz2008 - 2015 [3]
Charlie Jane Anders2015 - 2016 [5]
Rob Bricken2016 - 2018 [11]
Jill Pantozzi2018 - 2021 [11] [16]
James Whitbrook2021 - present [16]

Related Research Articles

Gawker was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded in 2002, Gawker was the flagship blog for Denton's Gawker Media. Gawker Media also managed other blogs such as Jezebel, io9, Deadspin and Kotaku.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gawker Media</span> Former British-American online media company and blog network

Gawker Media LLC was an American online media company and blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was based in New York City. Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, as of 2012, Gawker Media was the parent company for seven different weblogs and many subsites under them: Gawker.com, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel. All Gawker articles are licensed on a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license. In 2004, the company renamed from Blogwire, Inc. to Gawker Media, Inc., and to Gawker Media LLC shortly after.

Kotaku is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annalee Newitz</span> American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction

Annalee Newitz is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals Popular Science and Wired. From 1999 to 2008, Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column called Techsploitation, and from 2000 to 2004 was the culture editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2004, Newitz became a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. With Charlie Jane Anders, they also co-founded Other magazine, a periodical that ran from 2002 to 2007. From 2008 to 2015, Newitz was editor-in-chief of Gawker-owned media venture io9, and subsequently its direct descendant Gizmodo, Gawker's design and technology blog. As of 2019, Newitz is a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Jane Anders</span> American science fiction author and commentator

Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette Six Months, Three Days won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine's "Top 10 Novels" of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">70th World Science Fiction Convention</span> 70th Worldcon (2012)

The 70th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Chicon 7, was held on 30 August–3 September 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

<i>Gizmodo</i> Design, technology, science, and science fiction website and blog

Gizmodo is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. Gizmodo also includes the sub-blogs io9 and Earther, which focus on pop-culture and environmentalism respectively. Since April 2019, Gizmodo is part of G/O Media, owned by private equity firm Great Hill Partners.

The Root is an African American-oriented online magazine. It was launched on January 28, 2008, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Donald E. Graham.

<i>Flurb</i>

Flurb was an American science fiction webzine, edited by author Rudy Rucker and launched in August 2006. In addition to short stories, Flurb featured paintings and photography by Rucker. It was released biannually. The author of an accepted story retained full copyright, including the right to have the story published elsewhere, and to request that it be taken down at any time.

Nanopunk refers to an emerging subgenre of science fiction that is still very much in its infancy in comparison to its ancestor-genre, cyberpunk, and some of its other derivatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TV Tropes</span> Wiki documenting plot conventions in creative works

TV Tropes is a wiki website that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices, which it refers to as tropes, within many creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has shifted focus from covering various tropes to those in general media, toys, writings, and their associated fandoms, as well as some non-media subjects such as history, geography, and politics. The nature of the site as a provider of commentary on pop culture and fiction has attracted attention and criticism from several web personalities and blogs. Users of the TV Tropes community are called “Tropers”, and are mostly made up of 18-34 year olds.

Gallifrey Base is an Internet forum dedicated to discussion of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It has been described as "one of the largest Doctor Who fan forums".

<i>The Mongoliad</i>

The Mongoliad is a fictional narrative set in the Foreworld Saga, a secret history transmedia franchise developed by the Subutai Corporation. The Mongoliad was originally released in a serialized format online, and via a series of iOS and Android apps, but was restructured and re-edited for a definitive edition released via the Amazon Publishing imprint 47North, both in print and in Kindle format. Fan-submitted Foreworld stories were published via Amazon's Kindle Worlds imprint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Glenn</span> American writer and semiotician

Joshua Glenn is an American writer, editor, and semiotics analyst. He is the cofounder of the websites HiLobrow, Significant Objects, and Semionaut. In the 1990s he published the zine Hermenaut.

Project Hieroglyph is an initiative to create science fiction in order to spur innovation in science and technology founded by Neal Stephenson in 2011.

<i>Carnival</i> (Bear novel) 2006 novel by Elizabeth Bear

Carnival is a 2006 science fiction novel by Elizabeth Bear, published in the US by Bantam Spectra. It was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award, a Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and a Lambda Literary Award.

G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that owns and operates several digital media outlets, including Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Deadspin, The Root, The A.V. Club, The Takeout, The Onion, The Inventory, and Quartz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">80th World Science Fiction Convention</span> 80th Worldcon (2022)

The 80th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Chicon 8, was held on 1–5 September 2022 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thunder Levin</span> American screenwriter and director

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<i>Autonomous</i> (novel) 2017 science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz

Autonomous is a 2017 science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz. It is Newitz's debut novel and was published by Tor Books on September 19, 2017. Set in a near future Earth, the book describes a world where both humans and intelligent robots can be owned as property. The events of the novel follow Jack, a "drug pirate" who manufactures illegal versions of patented drugs, and Paladin, a combat robot who is owned by the law enforcement agency searching for Jack after one of the drugs she reverse-engineered turns out to have dangerous side effects.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wortham, Jenna (2008-01-02). "Gawker Blasts Into Sci-Fi With New Blog, Io9; a Q&A With Editor Annalee Newitz". Wired . Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  2. "io9 to Become Part of Gizmodo". CBR. 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  3. 1 2 "Locus Online". 2010-08-11.
  4. Michael Moran. Eureka's Top 30 Science Blogs Archived 2010-02-05 at the Wayback Machine , Times Online Eureka Zone blog, Jan 3, 2010
  5. 1 2 "Gawker Media merges Gizmodo and io9, names Annalee Newitz editor". Archived from the original on 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  6. "I'm Heading Out to the Black. Farewell, io9 and Gizmodo!". Gizmodo. November 30, 2015.
  7. "Brace Yourselves: io9 and Gizmodo Are Now One Epic Website". Gizmodo. December 15, 2015.
  8. "I Live, I Die, I Live Again. Goodbye, io9". Gizmodo. May 28, 2015.
  9. Gonzalez, Lauren Davis and Robbie (August 29, 2015). "My God, It's Full of Stars (And Dogs)". Gizmodo.
  10. "Twitter message". Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  11. 1 2 3 "Fare Thee Well, Space Travelers". Gizmodo. July 31, 2018.
  12. GMG Careers [@GMGCareers] (November 27, 2017). "We are THRILLED to have Jill start today as a Managing Editor on @Gizmodo's @io9! Please welcome @JillPantozzi to the team" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 7, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022 via Twitter.
  13. Pantozzi, Jill [@JillPantozzi] (July 11, 2018). "Some Big News I can finally talk about: I've been promoted at @Gizmodo and as of next month will be Deputy Editor, @io9 and in charge of the site. t.co/cTHlLOuveC" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2022 via Twitter.
  14. "Jill Pantozzi: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". 2 December 2019.
  15. "Intellect and Romance over Brute Force and Cynicism". 4 December 2021.
  16. 1 2 3 "A Message from Your New Editor". 6 December 2021.
  17. Spangler, Todd (2023-07-05). "Gizmodo's io9 Published an AI-Generated Star Wars Article That Was Filled With Errors". Variety. Retrieved 2023-12-24.