Scoble says that “great journalists call,” so I tried Om Malik’s number a bunch of times, but it’s been busy for a long time now — which could mean that lots of other people are calling too, to try and confirm the latest rumour. In the wake of the Scobleizer’s departure from Microsoft, the word in the Valley is that Om has gone solo and has taken funding to turn gigaom.com into a full-time job. “Eating his own dog food,” as the internal memo from Business 2.0 magazine puts it.
I know we’re supposed to wait for confirmation on these things, but hey — I figure Om would expect nothing less than to have his story broken by someone else. That’s how journalism works. Besides, Paul already mentioned it, and that’s good enough for me (and so did Steve Rubel). If true, I think it’s great. Om is a super guy and a great journalist — and was a great keynote and panelist at our mesh conference last month, even if I did have to delay a panel for him because he was outside having a smoke and making some phone calls 🙂 All the best, Om.
That makes three now — Tara going out on her own, Om going solo (although with a contributing editor gig at Business 2.0) and Scoble joining a podcasting startup. Is this a sign of a bubble? For all their sakes, I hope not.
Update:
Well, as most people know by now, Om has confirmed it (and given props to Valleywag’s Nick Douglas for the scoop besides, which is nice of him), and he sent an email out at about two in the morning to some of us — thanks for that Om.