Happy Anniversary, Dear Defense Tech

Three years ago today, I made one of the bet­ter deci­sions of my life. Guys like Josh Marshall and Glenn Reynolds and Gene Healy had con­vinced me to start a blog. But I wasn’t sure what direc­tion I wanted to take the site in — a general-​​purpose NoahShachtman​.com, where I could spout off about what­ever, or a more focused site, where I could hone in on my emerg­ing mil­i­tary tech­nol­ogy beat.
Fortunately, many friends and many rel­a­tives talked me into the right choice. Taking a page from Declan McCullagh, I called the site Defense Tech. And on January 6, 2003, the site went live.
With a war fast approach­ing, the site quickly gained trac­tion. My lit­tle excur­sion to some of New Mexico’s nuclear facil­i­ties gen­er­ated addi­tional inter­est. Within a few months, a cou­ple of major media orga­ni­za­tions were approach­ing me about buy­ing up the site.
The talks went nowhere, though. And, once “mis­sion accom­plished” was declared in Iraq, traf­fic to the site dipped. By January 2004, only a thou­sand peo­ple a day were stop­ping by. I thought more than once about giv­ing Defense Tech up. Without encour­age­ment from Phil Carter and oth­ers, I prob­a­bly would have quit.
By the sum­mer, how­ever, things started turn­ing around. Constant links from folks like Alan Boyle, Xeni Jardin, and Joel Johnson kept peo­ple com­ing to the site — almost four thou­sand, daily. And then, the acqu­si­tion talks started pick­ing up again.
I had known — and been impressed by — Military​.com Chief Chris Michel for years. That respect shot through the roof once I saw him in deal-​​making action. It took just a cou­ple of days to agree to join up with him and Military​.com.
Another good move. Traffic went up to more than ten thou­sand peo­ple per day. Guys with stars and oak leaves on their shoul­ders began writ­ing into the site. And, a whole crew of mega-​​talented writ­ers started con­tribut­ing to Defense Tech — super­stars like Jeffrey Lewis, Dan Dupont, David Hambling, Catherine Macrae Hockmuth, Jason Sigger, Murdoc, and David Axe.
The Military​.com deal also let me focus more on long-​​form, mag­a­zine work. Which lead me to high-​​speed pur­suits across Chicago’s West Side. To the Army’s drone school at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. And, of course, to Iraq and the Baghdad Bomb Squad. Thanks to Chris Anderson, Adam Rogers, and the rest of the Wired mag­a­zine crew for the oppor­tu­nites. And extra-​​special thanks to my wife-​​to-​​be, Elizabeth Visceglia, for putting up with all those trips, with all those nights in front of the key­board, and with all my many mood swings.
Today, Defense Tech has nearly thirty thou­sand peo­ple vis­it­ing daily. You rock, all of you. Your sup­port means the world to me. I can’t wait to see what hap­pens in the next three years.

January 6th, 2006 | Blog Bidness | 301913 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2006/01/06/happy-anniversary-dear-defense-tech/Happy+Anniversary%2C+Dear+Defense+Tech2006-01-06+20%3A37%3A11jason You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.