Tech

Swisher and Mossberg launch 'Re/code'; NBC & Windsor Media are minority investors

Julia Boorstin
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Mossberg & Swisher launch 'Re/code'
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Mossberg & Swisher launch 'Re/code'

Veteran technology journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg are launching a new media company, Re/code.net, the new incarnation of the widely followed technology news operation and conference business AllThingsD.

The new enterprise is being launched with minority investments from the NBC Universal News Group and Windsor Media, an investment firm run by Terry Semel, the former chief of Yahoo and Warner Brothers.

In September, Swisher and Mossberg announced that they were parting ways with NewsCorp.'s Dow Jones, where they had built and run AllThingsD.

Mossberg, whose weekly column, "Personal Technology," in the Wall Street Journal was a popular mainstay of the newspaper said at the time that he would leave the Journal at the end of 2013.

In addition to NBCUniversal News Group's strategic investment, Swisher and Mossberg's holding company Revere Digital LLC is also signing a separate content partnership with NBCUniversal News Group to partner on tech coverage. The partnership takes effect today.

Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher
From left: Denise Truscello | WireImage Getty Images; AllThingsD

"We recognize we need more and video expertise. We're glad to be able to have the ability to be on NBC's TV platforms as well as web platforms," Swisher says. "We thought it was a great fit."

In an interview, NBC Universal News Group Chairman Patricia Fili-Krushel said "for us it was a no-brainer in terms of a content fit. It gives us the opportunity across the News Group to expand our Silicon Valley presence both in technology and digital media coverage."

While the two companies will maintain editorial independence, Re/code will have access to NBC video, the NBC News group will have access to breaking stories, and Re/code reporters will appear across NBC's on-air and digital platforms.

CNBC will be Revere's media partner for its conferences and the two companies will collaborate on advertising to expand their respective reach. Fili-Krushel says NBC News Group is in discussions about sharing office space with Re/code in New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

"I think every brand needs to live cross-platform, all our on-air talent needs to live cross-platform," says Fili-Krushel. "No longer can we be just a TV-centric organization. This will give us a jumpstart in the digital and technology area, and this is just the beginning of what we need to be doing."

Mossberg says he could tell when he met Fili-Krushel and her team that Re/code would be valued by NBC not just financially, but also "for the value of the journalism, and we value NBC's journalism as well."

Windsor's Semel says he is drawn to Swisher and Mossberg's new partnership in part because of the "global opportunity."

"I think they'll do a great job, and it doesn't necessarily just have to happen in the US. Most of the time we should be thinking about the rest of the world," Semel says.

"This investment means we can think of and put into place new kinds of ways to cover tech and media in the web and in the conference arena," Mossberg says. He and Swisher plan to add another six or so reporters to their current staff of 18 full-time employees, including additional tech policy and mobile reporters, and to continue and expand the conference business they ran under the AllThingsD umbrella.

Revere's big annual conference will be called the 'Code' conference, and is scheduled for May 27-29 at the Terrenea resort in Dana Point, CA, the same time and place as the annual conference Mossberg and Swisher hosted for AllThingsD. They'll continue hosting two other annual conferences, as they did at AllThingsD, one focused on media, one on mobile.

The conference is closely watched in the industry, and attracts big names in tech and media. Microsoft's former CEO Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs are among many who have been featured panelists.