Tech policy reader's digest
And... Trusty goes on hiatus
Hey Trustees!
Some personal news this issue: in the coming weeks, I’ll be joining Business Insider as a tech reporter in San Francisco! While I’m excited for the opportunity to keep writing about this fascinating industry, I’ve decided to hit pause on Trusty for a bit so I can focus my energy on the new role.
For those of you who’ve followed along or helped shape this newsletter in any way, first of all: thank you and I hope you’ll keep following my work at BI.
Second, I’m sure you’re all aware by now that the conversations around tech and how it intersects with social and policy issues are just getting started. So, since there’s an election going on, I wanted to leave you all with some endorsements. If you want to stay up on tech/tech policy while Trusty is offline, these are some phenomenal newsletters, sources and reporters to follow:
Axios
Login / Codebook / Media Trends
Axios has really gone all in on email newsletters, and they’re all really good. The emails are fine-tuned for “smart brevity,” as Axios calls it, which makes it easy to quickly glean a lot of information from them. Ina Fried’s Login, Joe Uchill’s Codebook, and Sara Fischer’s Media Trends are great reads on tech, cyber and media, respectively.
The Hill
Hillicon Valley
Maggie Miller, Emily Birnbaum and Chris Mills Rodrigo write The Hill’s cyber and tech newsletter, which includes summaries of the top stories from Washington and Silicon Valley. It’s an easy, well-rounded read and does a great job highlighting what the sources themselves are saying.
Politico
Morning Tech
Alexandra Levine is the primary reporter behind this well-structured and well-reported newsletter. It’s intended for a bit more D.C. insider audience, but you can scan it and feel much more in the loop on what tech policy issues lawmakers, regulators, lobbyists and advocates are focused on.
The Verge
The Interface
Casey Newton, who has broken several major tech stories recently, writes this extensive newsletter covering “the intersection of social media and democracy.” There’s a lot in each issue, but he packs in great commentary as well as links to a variety of interesting pieces from elsewhere on the web.
Recode
Recode Daily
Recode has an incredibly talented team of reporters who cover tech and tech policy from a distinctly Silicon Valley angle, looking into more niche beats like venture capital and media. Recode Daily offers a quick roundup of their top stories.
Washington Post
Technology 202 / Cybersecurity 202
Cat Zakrzewski and Joseph Marks write the Post’s tech and cyber newsletters, with editing help from Tonya Riley. Both follow a similar (and super helpful) structure: longer lead story, followed by recurring sections with short news blurbs, capped off with clip roundups from both public and private sector news.
Techmeme
Techmeme’s daily newsletter aggregates a bunch of headlines floating around Silicon Valley, plus a few reactions from folks on Twitter. It definitely skews insider, but offers a fairly comprehensive
Bloomberg Technology
Fully Charged
Eric Newcomer provides his analysis of the day’s top tech news story from the typically business-oriented angle you might expect from Bloomberg. He also includes a few stories from Bloomberg’s reporters, who cover anything at the intersection of tech and business.
Financial Times
#techFT
Those looking for a slightly more international/business focus take should check out the Financial Times’ #techFT newsletter. It includes brief analysis from London-based Chris Nuttall or one of FT’s many writers around the world, plus five stories driving the global tech news cycle.
Logic Magazine
This last one isn’t an email newsletter, but a print magazine (gasp!) that I absolutely have to plug. Its editors have taken a really thoughtful approach to writing stories about tech that don’t adhere to binary clichés about tech either saving the world or destroying it. From their manifesto:
We are living in times of great peril and possibility. We want to ask the right questions. How do the tools work? Who finances and builds them, and how are they used? Whom do they enrich, and whom do they impoverish? What futures do they make feasible, and which ones do they foreclose?
Did I miss any? Most definitely. If you’ve got some good reads to recommend, let me know so I can share with other readers.
Thank you all for supporting Trusty and stay tuned for more from me in the coming weeks as I get started at Business Insider!
Tyler