Earlier this year I shared a new vision for Lifehacker, with a noble personal goal: for our site to provide the most informative content on the Internet. At the time, Lifehacker had just been acquired by Ziff Davis from G/O Media, and I was both cautiously optimistic about our new headquarters and grateful for the changes to come. Eight months later, I’m proud to share some of these changes and invite you back to join our community of experts, DIYers, and lifelong learners.
Welcome to our new site
Lifehacker has a new homepage design, logo, and site navigation, but we’ve also refocused our brand. Long-time readers may remember Lifehacker’s evolution from a tech site to a broader “lifestyle” hub, and in many ways we’ve come full circle: you can expect lots more tech from Lifehacker in the future, including reviews covering computers, smartphones, smart devices. home appliances, smart watches, tablets, TVs and accessories; as well as how-to guides, explainers and product recommendations. Our cooking, entertainment, finance, and fitness content isn’t going anywhere, but you can expect more focus on the technology and tools you might consider purchasing, and on how to use them most effectively.
We also have a new clear and simple mission: provide reliable technical assistance and credible, practical, science-based advice. This statement is our North Star for what topics we choose to cover and how we approach them, and you can expect each Lifehacker story to either offer suggestions on something you should consider trying or offers the information you need to help you make your own decision. . We want to go beyond news coverage to explain what you can do in response to changing technology, events and trends.
You can also expect our team to grow. Lifehacker is staffed by full-time writers and a group of experienced freelancers, and as our technology and product coverage expands, so will our list of contributors. However, most of your favorite writers are still here: Stephen Johnson continues his offline adult guide series, Beth Skwarecki is still debunking viral TikTok myths, Allie Chanthorn Reinmann is still cooking and baking, and Meghan Walbert has always the smartest advice on parenting in the digital age. Lifehacker alumni are also doing amazing things after their experience here, and I hope you find them too. (We will miss you Claireand we will encourage you to Milk Street.)
Lifehacker has always had amazing people on staff, and I encourage you to get to know them based on your interests or, better yet, let them inspire you to become interested in something new. And as Lifehacker becomes more of a community, built on lifelong learning and knowledge sharing, there are three ways I want to encourage you to get involved.
First, make friends in the comments. Lifehacker is no longer on our old Kinja platform, so if you want to chat with writers or other readers, create an account with our new OpenWeb commenting platform. Consider this a new start in your comment history, as well as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with our new guidelines. The bottom line is simple: have fun. Be respectful. Feel free to criticize ideas, but not people. Treat others with as much respect online as you hopefully do in person. I hate bullies (read my memoirs, it’s crazy), and I have no interest in running an unmoderated forum that allows imbecile behavior, much less abuse or bigotry. Spam filters will probably be overzealous at times, so there may be a delay in seeing your words online, but a human will handle moderation quickly. This will make our comments section a more welcoming and helpful community for everyone.
Second, keep an eye out for our new newsletters. We currently have our main daily newsletter, but several other topic-specific newsletters are in the works. Watch for writers like Jake Peterson who writes a technology newsletter, Allie Chanthorn Reinmann who writes about food, Beth Skwarecki and Meredith Dietz who write about fitness, and me who write about life, Lifehacker and personal development . The first new newsletter, The Download, is technology-focused and will launch soon.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably a long-time Lifehacker reader. So, third: if you have any ideas or comments, please feel free to contact me directly. I love this brand more than you can imagine and spend a lot of time thinking about how to make it as useful as possible. Of course, I have to do this in a broader context of business, journalism and digital media, but my team and I are working hard to make this site the best place it can be. You can reach me by email at (email protected) Or on Instagram Or Topics. Outside of Lifehacker, I sometimes write about culture for Black Nerd Problems or The Atlantic, and I enjoy responding to thoughtful readers who are often surprised to receive a response. I can’t wait to do more here. It’s a great site with amazing contributors and readers. I’m excited to show it off, but even more excited about the things we’ll learn together.
