Welcome Erick Schonfeld, My New Co-Editor

I was dying to announce this at TechCrunch40, but the timing just didn’t work out. Nevertheless, I am extremely proud to announce that TechCrunch now has a co-editor. Erick Schonfeld, most recently an editor-at-large at Business 2.0, will be joining the team starting next Wednesday, September 26. Matt Richtel at The New York Times broke the story.

Erick has been covering startups and technology news for 14 years. At Business 2.0 he writes feature stories and runs their main blog, Next Net, which has nearly 50,000 RSS subscribers. He also does a lot of video work and hosts regular panels of industry luminaries called Disruptor Round Tables. Prior to Business 2.0, Erick was an editor-at-large for eCompany and a contributing editor for Fortune. In 1999, Schonfeld won the prize for best information technology submission at London’s Business Journalist of the Year Awards, and in 2001 he won the prize for best space submission at the Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards in Paris. In 1996 and 1997, Schonfeld was recognized in the TJFR Business News Reporter’s list of the “best and brightest financial journalists under the age of 30.” He appears regularly on CNBC, CNN, and NY1, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Schonfeld graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University in 1993.

What impresses me most about Erick is that he comes from a traditional big media background but has embraced new media so completely. Next Net is one of a handful of blogs that I read religiously, and his expertise in video is much needed around here, where we are behind the curve.

The timing was also perfect. I was able to hire Heather, our CEO, after her boss Ross Levinsohn left Fox. Similarly, talking Erick into joining was much easier since Business 2.0 is closing down next week. He had many job offers to choose from, but our persistence won in the end.

I honestly think my greatest strength is my willingness to hire people who are, simply, better than me. Erick fits nicely into this category, and I can’t wait for him to start. Look for him starting next week. You can email him at erick at techcrunch. And see Erick’s blog post on this at Next Net.

As an aside, Erick will be staying in New York, and we will be opening a joint TechCrunch/CrunchGear office there. We’re looking at a number of options, but if you have a lead on available sublets, please let us know.