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Lifehacker

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This article is about the lifehacker.com website. For information on life hacks in general, see Life hack.

Lifehacker
Type of site
Blog
Available inEnglish, Japanese
OwnerG/O Media
Created byGina Trapani
EditorJordan Calhoun
URLlifehacker.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional, through Kinja
Launched31 January 2005; 20 years ago (2005-01-31)

Lifehacker is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on January 31, 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is currently owned by G/O Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux programs, iOS and Android, as well as general life tips and tricks. The website is known for its fast-paced release schedule from its inception, with content being published every half hour all day long.[1] The Lifehacker motto is "Tips, tricks, and downloads for getting things done."[2]

In addition, Lifehacker has international editions: Lifehacker Australia (as of 2022 owned by Pedestrian);[3] Lifehacker Japan;[4] and Lifehacker UK[verification needed] which feature most posts from the U.S. edition along with extra content specific to local readers.[5][6]

History

Gina Trapani founded Lifehacker and was the site's sole blogger until September 2005, when two associate editors joined her, Erica Sadun and D. Keith Robinson.[7] Other former associate editors include Wendy Boswell, Rick Broida,[8] Jason Fitzpatrick, Kevin Purdy, and Jackson West.[9] Former contributing editors include The How-To Geek,[10] and Tamar Weinberg.[11]

Lifehacker launched in January 2005 with an exclusive sponsorship by Sony. The highly publicized ad campaign was rumored to have cost $75,000 for three months.[12] Since then, a variety of tech-oriented advertisers have appeared on the site.[13]

Lifehacker's frequent guest posts have included articles by Joe Anderson, Eszter Hargittai, Matt Haughey, Meg Hourihan, Jeff Jarvis.[14][15][16][17][18]

On January 16, 2009, Trapani resigned as Lifehacker's lead editor and Adam Pash assumed the position.[19]

On February 7, 2011, Lifehacker revealed a redesigned site with a cleaner layout.[20] Then, on April 15, 2013, Lifehacker redesigned their site again to match the other newly redesigned Gawker sites, like Kotaku.[21]

On January 7, 2013, Adam Pash moved on from Lifehacker to a new start-up, and Whitson Gordon became the new editor-in-chief.[22]

On January 1, 2016, Whitson Gordon parted ways with Lifehacker to another popular technology website, How-To Geek, as their editor-in-chief [23] replacing Lowell Heddings.[24] In his announcement, Gordon confirmed that Alan Henry would take over as the interim editor pending interviewing processes. Alan Henry became the new editor-in-chief on February 1, 2016.

On February 3, 2017, Alan Henry left his position at Lifehacker. He has since moved on to write for the New York Times.[25]

On February 28, 2017, Melissa Kirsch became the editor-in-chief.[26] Alice Bradley was named editor-in-chief in June 2020, but left in March 2021.[27] Former deputy editor Jordan Calhoun succeeded her as editor-in-chief.

Lifehacker was one of six websites that was purchased by Univision Communications in their acquisition of Gawker Media in August 2016.[28]

Podcast

Lifehacker staff ran the Ask Lifehacker podcast, which was discontinued in April 2014. From May 2014, former Lifehacker writer Adam Dachis hosted Supercharged, a podcast with the same theme and set-up, on which Lifehacker writers Alan Henry, Whitson Gordon, Eric Ravenscraft, Thorin Klosowski and Patrick Allen frequently co-hosted.

As of January 2017, Lifehacker has a weekly podcast called The Upgrade. It is hosted by Jordan Calhoun and features experts "helping you improve your life, one week at a time".[29]

Staff

Writer Position
Jordan Calhoun Editor-In-Chief
Joel Cunningham Managing Editor
David Murphy Senior Technology Editor
Claire Lower Senior Food Editor
Beth Skwarecki Senior Health Editor
Meghan Moravcik Walbert Parenting Editor
Mike Winters Finance Writer
Sam Blum Staff Writer
Aisha Jordan Staff Writer
Joel Kahn Senior Video Producer
Micaela Heck Podcast Producer
Gina Trapani Founding Editor

According to this letter from the editor on Lifehacker, Alan Henry will no longer be the Editor-in-Chief at Lifehacker and has since joined The New York Times. Gizmodo Media announced Melissa Kirsch as his replacement in February 2017.[30] Alice Bradley was named editor-in-chief in June 2020.[31] Jordan Calhoun became editor-in-chief in March 2021.[32]

Accolades

  • In 2005, TIME named Lifehacker one of the "50 Coolest Web Sites"[33] in 2005, one of the "25 Sites We Can't Live Without"[34] in 2006 and one of the "25 Best Blogs 2009"[35]
  • CNET named Lifehacker in their "Blog 100" in October 2005.[36]
  • Wired presented Gina Trapani with a Rave Award in 2006 for Best Blog.[37]
  • In the 2007 Weblog Awards, Lifehacker was awarded Best Group Weblog.[38]
  • PC Magazine named Lifehacker in "Our Favorite 100 Blogs" in October 2007.[39]
  • US Mensa named Lifehacker as one of their top 50 sites in 2010.[40]

References

  1. ^ How Lifehackers founder gets things done Accessed: 04/08/2019
  2. ^ About Lifehacker Archived 2016-08-19 at the Wayback Machine Accessed: 8/16/2016
  3. ^ "Level Up Your Life". Lifehacker Australia. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  4. ^ "ライフハッカー［日本版］". ライフハッカー［日本版］ (in Japanese). Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  5. ^ Welcome to Lifehacker UK Archived 2014-04-25 at the Wayback Machine (April 17, 2014). Retrieved on April 25, 2014.
  6. ^ Lifehacker AU Goes Live Archived 2009-09-12 at the Wayback Machine (August 28, 2007). Retrieved on August 31, 2007.
  7. ^ Gina Trapani (September 6, 2005). "Introducing Team Lifehacker, triple threat". Lifehacker.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  8. ^ "Farewell, Rick!". Lifehacker. 2007-05-11. Archived from the original on 2007-05-13. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
  9. ^ "Jackson West is our Newest Associate Editor". 2008-11-05. Archived from the original on 2009-05-20. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  10. ^ "Welcome Our New Contributing Editor, The How-To Geek". 2009-02-19. Archived from the original on 2009-06-06. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  11. ^ "Farewell to Tamar". 2008-10-17. Archived from the original on 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  12. ^ Mike Rundle (February 1, 2005). "Sony Paying $25k Per Month for Lifehacker Blog Sponsorship". businesslogs.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  13. ^ "Internal Surveys from July, 2006". Gawker Media. July 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-01-19. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  14. ^ "This week's guest editor: Joe Anderson". Lifehacker. 2006-07-25. Archived from the original on 2007-11-24. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  15. ^ "This Week s Guest Editor". Lifehacker. 2005-08-29. Archived from the original on 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  16. ^ "Guest editor this week: Matt Haughey". Lifehacker. 2006-03-13. Archived from the original on 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  17. ^ "How to mouse goofy". Lifehacker. 2006-05-25. Archived from the original on 2007-07-03. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  18. ^ "Special Report: Web 2.0 Conference". Lifehacker. 2005-10-06. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  19. ^ "Letter From The Editor: So Long and Thanks for All the Fish". Lifehacker. 2009-01-16. Archived from the original on 2009-01-19. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
  20. ^ "Hello World! This Is The New Lifehacker". Lifehacker.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-07. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  21. ^ "Welcome to the New Lifehacker". Lifehacker.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  22. ^ "It was Pash like Cash". Lifehacker. 2013-01-07. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
  23. ^ Gordon, Whitson. "...And Now His Watch Has Ended". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 31 December 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  24. ^ Heddings, Lowell. "With 1 Billion Views So Far, We're Moving How-To Geek Forward". www.howtogeek.com. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  25. ^ Henry, Alan. "Be Good, Play Nice. I'm Heading Out". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 12 December 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  26. ^ Richard Horgan, "Incoming Lifehacker EIC Is Proud of This Amazon Product Review" Archived 2017-12-22 at the Wayback Machine, Adweek, February 14, 2017
  27. ^ Fischer, Sara. "Editors bolt from G/O Media after 2019 sale". Axios. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  28. ^ Calderone, Michael (18 August 2016). "Gawker.com Ending Operations Next Week". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  29. ^ Apple Podcasts, "The Upgrade by Lifehacker" Archived 2017-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
  30. ^ Richard Horgan (February 14, 2017). "Incoming Lifehacker EIC Is Proud of This Amazon Product Review". Adweek. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  31. ^ "Alice Bradley Named EIC At 'Lifehacker'". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  32. ^ "About Lifehacker". Lifehacker. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  33. ^ Murray, Maryanne (2005-06-20). "50 Coolest Web Sites". Archived from the original on 2013-08-25. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  34. ^ Murray, Maryanne (2006-08-03). "25 Sites We Can't Live Without". Time. Archived from the original on 2013-08-23. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  35. ^ "25 Best Blogs 2009". 2009-02-13. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  36. ^ "News.com's Blog 100". CNET News. Archived from the original on 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  37. ^ "Wired 14.06: Real Simple". Wired. 2009-01-04. Archived from the original on 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  38. ^ "Seventh Annual Weblog Awards". The 2007 Bloggies. Archived from the original on 2008-10-03. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  39. ^ Heater, Brian (2007-10-15). "Our 100 Favorite Blogs". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-03-03. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  40. ^ "American Mensa | Top 50". April 30, 2011. Archived from the original on April 30, 2011.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lifehacker.
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