Pasadena, California is John's
hometown. His grandparents settled there in 1922. Today, John is the hometown
hero or "high priest of high tech" as he is called by the Pasadena Times
in their `local boy makes good' story.
"John Battelle may be the Managing Editor of the most far-out, futuristic
magazine on the newstands today, but he can't resist the lure of Pasadena's
resolutely unmodern architecture and sense of history," wrote Tania Soussan, a
staff writer for the Pasadena Times.
Pasadena, California is John's
hometown. His grandparents settled there in 1922. Today, John is the hometown
hero or "high priest of high tech" as he is called by the Pasadena Times
in their `local boy makes good' story.
After finishing high school in Pasadena, John headed towards the Bay Area to study Cultural Anthropology at the University of California in Berkeley. It was there John began to notice the convergence of technology and culture. John then worked as a reporter for MacWeek for three years, covering computer networking. He returned to Berkeley to complete a Master's Degree in Journalism in 1990.
After graduating in 1992, he started as a summer intern at the Los Angeles Times. He left the Los Angeles Times in late August, refusing a secure job offer there because the editors would not let him cover the technology culture movement. John explains,
"My goal was to write stories like the ones that are now in Wired except write them for Vanity Fair, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and whoever else would have them. I knew they were great stories. All I had to do was convince the editors. And I figured that I could probably do it. Plus I wanted to go to New York. Just to go to New York, and Michelle was there."John was heading to New York to become a free-lance writer and to meet his girlfriend, Michelle, a native New Yorker who he had met while doing research on his thesis. But just before taking off John heard from Louis Rossetto.
Louis needed a Managing Editor who shared his vision of the coming "Digital Revolution". When Louis' original choice had left town to take a position with National Geographic, Louis started networking to find a suitable replacement, and John's name surfaced. Because John was getting ready to leave for New York, it was difficult to locate and connect with him. Louis actually had to call John's parents to find a phone number to contact John. As John was hiking in the mountains, enjoying the wilderness before he left for New York, Louis was unable to reach him directly. Upon returning to civilization, John checked his voicemail and received Louis' message.
Once they finally met and talked, they hit it off immediately. "We realized that what we were talking about was an idea that he had had for a graduate project at Berkeley," said Louis in a telephone interview with the Pasadena Times.
John never re-located to New York. But Michelle eventually moved to San
Francisco after John flew to New York and proposed to marry her. They married in 1994. Michelle
was previously a producer at CBS News. She started helping Wired manage its
press coverage. "It was a natural for her to come onboard when we
realized that press attention was becoming overwhelming," said John. She
worked at Wired for a year and a half as the Director of Public Relations.
Michelle is currently working as an independent technology marketing
consultant.
At 29, John has his hands full. With his recent promotion to Executive Managing Editor, he is now charged with the dual task of overseeing the editorial content of the magazine and spearheading new business initiatives.
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