Felipe Machado is a writer, journalist and media consultant from São Paulo, Brazil.
Director of Digital Media at Diário de S. Paulo, one of biggest newspaper of Brazil, and Rede Bom Dia, a group of newspapers spread around ten cities of Sao Paulo’ state. A former copywriter at DPZ, one of the top brazilian advertising agencies, Felipe Machado worked as the Multimedia Editor for O Estado de S. Paulo (OESP), Brazil’s most prestigious newspaper. Bringing this 135 year newspaper into the digital age, Machado served as Director of the webTVs TV Estadao and TV Limao, and the Podcast section for the company’s website. Machado started to work at OESP in 2000 covering a wide range of stories, from Politics to Culture, from Economy to Arts. He was chosen to create the first ever multimedia team of the giant company due to his strategic vision of media and his talent to combine long-standing journalism concepts with the cutting-edge technology.
Machado has directed two documentaries for O Estado de S. Paulo. In ‘Mordaça no Estadão’ (Gagging the Giant Estado - newspaper)[1], he delves into the history of censorship and authoritarian power in Brazilian media during the 1970s. In ‘Um Paraíso Perdido’ (Paradise Lost)[2], Machado recounts how the famed Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha traveled to the Amazon one hundred years ago. In addition, he directed the fictional avant-garde short ‘Love 2.0’[3], which served as a experiment filmed live with the dialogue created by numerous internet users.
Machado was also commentator on numerous Music Festivals, the world-famous Sao Paulo Fashion Week and music festivals for Radio Eldorado. He is one of the most popular bloggers in Brazil, writing about relationships and culture at ‘Palavra de Homem’ (Man’s Word) – the digital version of his five years old weekly column that he initiated at another company-owned newspaper, Jornal da Tarde).
As a writer, Machado has released two novels, ‘Olhos Cor de Chuva’ (Rain-Colored Eyes, Ed. Escrituras, 2002 - ISBN 8857531058) [4], and “O Martelo dos Deuses’ (The Hammer of the Gods, Ed. Pau Brasil, 2007 - ISBN 8599629050)[5] – and most recently published two non-fiction works – ‘Bacana Bacana: The Adventures of a Brazilian Journalist in South Africa’(Ed. Seoman, 2010 - ISBN 9788598903200), and ‘Ping Pong: The Adventures of a Brazilian Journalist in Olympic China’ (Ed. Pau Brasil, 2010 - ISBN 9788598903200), narrating his coverage of the African World Cup and the Beijing Olympic Games.
He also heads ART4 Communications, an exclusive news agency focused on stories about Brazil for an international audience, and works as a freelance contributor for publications such as The New York Times (US), Vision (China), CitizenK, Double, Mixte (France), Back2Back (England), among others.
In 2009, Machado was invited for a panel at the Latinvision Digital & Social Media Conference, held at The New York Times Auditorium. He presented the theme ‘TotalMedia’, a concept created by Machado about work and new journalism. In 2006, he presented the conference ‘Brazil: Beyond Carnival and Soccer’ at DePaul University, in Chicago.
In his spare time and not-so-distant past, Machado has written short-movie scripts and has played guitar for his rock band, Viper. As the lead guitarist and frontman for Viper since the 1980s, Machado has released seven records and has toured the United States, Europe, Japan and South America.