Paul Carr (writer)

For other people named Paul Carr, see Paul Carr (disambiguation).
Paul Carr

Photograph of Paul Carr by Richard Moross
Born (1979-12-07) 7 December 1979
Dunfermline, Scotland
Occupation Writer
Nationality British
Website
paulcarr.com

Paul Carr (born 7 December 1979) is a British writer, journalist and commentator, based in San Francisco.[1] He has also—as he wrote on his official website—"edited various publications and founded numerous businesses with varying degrees of abysmal failure."[2] Carr is editorial director of PandoDaily.[3]

Memoirs

Carr's first autobiographical book, Bringing Nothing to the Party—True Confessions of a New Media Whore, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2008.[4] It tells the story of "a unique group of hard-partying, high-achieving young entrepreneurs—and [Carr's] attempts to join them, whatever the cost."[5] According to one review, the book follows Carr's "journey from gonzo journalist, to accidental business owner, to accidental web business mogul, to very-near-jailbird, to working out what actually makes him happy in life."[6]

In 2010, it was reported[7] that Weidenfeld & Nicolson would publish a second book by Carr in May 2011, titled The Upgrade.[8] The book tells the story of how, after the events described in Bringing Nothing to the Party, Carr "decides to sell most of his possessions, abandon his old life and live entirely in upscale hotels—as a modern-day nomad."[9] The book describes Carr's physical travels to the United States and other countries, including Spain, France, Germany, Canada and Iceland,[10] as well as his personal journey, documenting Carr's battles with alcohol and subsequent attempt to give up drinking.[11] In March 2012 an article by Carr was published in the Wall Street Journal titled "How I Stopped Drowning in Drink," detailing his realization that he was an alcoholic and his successful self-designed program to stop drinking.[12]

Satirical writing

In 2001, while studying law[13] at university, Carr co-founded and edited the award-winning satirical "comment sheet," The Friday Thing.[14]

In 2002, The Christian Scientist described Carr as a "latter day Jonathan Swift" following the publication of his satirical anti-vigilante manifesto "Think of the Children."[15] In the same year, Carr co-founded the London city guide, London by London.[16]

He has also written for television, most recently for Alison Jackson's Doubletake series.[17]

New Media writing

In July 2009 it was announced[18] that Carr would be writing a weekly column for technology news site TechCrunch and also blogging regularly for The Telegraph newspaper. On 16 September 2011, Carr announced on TechCrunch that he was resigning from the AOL-owned properties.

Prior to joining TechCrunch,[19] Carr wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper entitled "Not Safe For Work"[20] which followed his adventures in the technology industry. Between 2003–2005 he wrote a regular new media column for Media Guardian.[21]

Carr has also authored a series of nine web guide books for Prentice Hall,[22] as well as co-authoring The Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life published by Pan Macmillan (UK) and St Martin's Press (US) in 2007.[23]

Carr was a regular user of Twitter,[24] but deleted his account in August 2010 to focus on blogging.[25] Carr resumed using Twitter in April 2011[26] before quitting again in May 2015.[27]

Entrepreneurship

In 2005, along with Clare Christian, Carr co-founded The Friday Project,[28] a book publishing house specializing in finding material on the web and then turning it into traditional books.

Carr left The Friday Project in December 2006,[29] along with online editor Karl Webster, to lead a buy-out of the company's Internet media arm, which led to the founding of online city site Fridaycities.com.[30] Carr left Fridaycities in 2007, when the site re-branded as Kudocities.[31] He later described himself as "NSFW" (Not Safe For Work).[32]

In September 2011, having publicly resigned from TechCrunch[33] following the departure of founder Michael Arrington, it was reported that Carr planned[34] to return to entrepreneurship. One month later, Carr announced the launch of Not Safe For Work Corporation, an online satirical news weekly. The company was reportedly backed by investments from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and Arrington's CrunchFund.[35]

Not Safe For Work Corporation, or "NSFW Corp", failed financially[36] and was sold to technology news Web site PandoDaily[37] which was also funded by Hsieh alongside Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel.[38]

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "About Paul Carr". Official Site. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "About Paul Carr". Official Site. 1 May 2008.
  3. ↑ "About Paul Carr". Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Carr, Paul (2008). Bringing Nothing to the Party. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  5. ↑ "Bringing Nothing to the Party". Orion Books. 1 July 2008.
  6. ↑ "Book Review: Bringing Nothing To The Party". New Media Knowledge (University of Westminster). 9 August 2008.
  7. ↑ "Paul sells up to travel with just laptop". The Sun. 8 September 2010.
  8. ↑ "The Upgrade". Orion Books. 1 September 2010.
  9. ↑ "Paul sells up to travel with just laptop". The Sun. 8 September 2010.
  10. ↑ "Paul sells up to travel with just laptop". The Sun. 8 September 2010.
  11. ↑ "Paul Carr: The trouble with drink, the trouble with me". PaulCarr.com. 26 October 2009.
  12. ↑ "How I Stopped Drowning in Drink". Wall Street Journal. 19 March 2012.
  13. ↑ "That Friday Feeling". The Bookseller. 9 June 2006.
  14. ↑ Gibson, Owen (18 February 2002). "That Friday feeling". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  15. ↑ Left, Sarah (2 October 2002). "Satirical website escapes closure". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  16. ↑ Revill, Jo (12 February 2007). "A site for TV execs and tea ladies". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  17. ↑ "The Secret Election". BBC Online comedy guide. 22 May 2005.
  18. ↑ Carr, Paul (23 July 2009). "'Goodbye, farewell and amen to Not Safe For Work'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  19. ↑ "The Guardian has slashed its freelance budget. Result—no more column from me. Thought about writing it for free, but meh.". Twitter. 13 July 2009.
  20. ↑ "Not Safe For Work". London: The Guardian. 12 November 2008. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  21. ↑ Carr, Paul (28 February 2005). "The Bloggers Shall Inherit The Gonzo". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  22. ↑ "The Very Best Family Web Sites from Zingin.com". Pearson Education. 1 January 2001.
  23. ↑ "Pan Macmillan author biography". Pan Macmillan. 22 March 2007.
  24. ↑ "Paul Carr's Twitter Stream". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  25. ↑ "Wow. If You Think Quitting Booze Freaks People Out, Wait 'Til You Quit Twitter". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  26. ↑ Carr, Paul. "So, I'm Back on Twitter. Addiction Is A Hell of a Thing". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  27. ↑ Carr, Paul. "The Room". Pando. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  28. ↑ "That Friday Feeling". The Bookseller. 9 June 2006.
  29. ↑ "Paul Carr leaves the Friday Project".
  30. ↑ Revill, Jo (12 February 2007). "A site for TV execs and tea ladies". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  31. ↑ Carr, Paul (2008). Bringing Nothing to the Party. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 271.
  32. ↑ "About Paul Carr". Official Site. 1 May 2008.
  33. ↑ "TechCrunch columnist Paul Carr quits AOL".
  34. ↑ "EXCLUSIVE: Ex-TechCrunch Star Paul Carr Is Starting A New Company Backed By... Michael Arrington's CrunchFund".
  35. ↑ "Paul Carr's 'The New Gambit' Wants To Be 'The Economist,' But Funny".
  36. ↑ "Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily – After NSFW's financial failure, the tech journalist joins the tech site PandoDaily – 'the site of record for Silicon Valley'", The Guardian, 25 November 2013, retrieved 3 January 2013.
  37. ↑ "PandoDaily Acquires Paul Carr's NSFW Corp", TechCrunch, 25 November 2013, retrieved 3 January 2013.
  38. ↑ "Sarah Lacy's PandoDaily launches with $2.5 million in funding", GigaOM, 16 January 2012, retrieved 3 January 2013.
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