Om Malik Joins True Ventures, Steps Down At Tech Site Gigaom

Om Malik, founder of venture blog Gigaom, is stepping down as contributing writer and will become a partner with True Ventures.

“I am looking forward to the next generation of writers and leaders to help Gigaom continue and improve on what we did together. I will still write occasionally for Gigaom and will be at all our events,” he said of the move in an email.

Malik founded Gigaom in 2006 during a time of great upheaval in business journalism. Blogs were rising in prominence – including TechCrunch – and business journalism was quickly moving from print to online. His site began focusing on events and paid research in 2008 and it currently employs 70. Tom Krazit is executive editor.

He has been a long time “venture partner” at True and will remain on Gigaom’s board. He will also headline Gigaom events and write the occasional column.

Malik writes:

Living a 24-hour news life has come at a personal cost. I still wake in middle of the night to check the stream to see if something is breaking, worrying whether I missed some news.It is a unique type of addiction that only a few can understand, and it is time for me to opt out of this non-stop news life. After five years as a “venture partner,” I am joining True Ventures as a partner, and thus bringing an end to my life as a professional journalist.

Om has long been a personal inspiration and his impact on blogging has been immense. I’m glad to count him as a friend. I look forward to seeing where he’s headed. Thankfully, he leaves us with a bit of advice:

Give respect: the respect we want
Take less, give more
Others don’t have to lose for us to win.
Better, not more.
Keep it simple, keep it honest.

You can read a bit more about his transition on his personal site.

Photo by Flickr user Joi under a CC by 2.0 license