GigaOm Acquires jkOnTheRun

Posted on July 29, 2008

The jkOnTheRun mobile gadget blog has been acquired by the GigaOM blog network. jkOntheRun's authors Kevin C. Tofel and James Kendrick will continue to write the blog. In a post here about the acquisition, GigaOM founder Om Malik says jkOntheRun has long been one of his favorite blogs.

jkOnTheRun is one of the rare blogs that covers the world of mobile gadgets with razor-sharp wit and insight. More importantly, it has a genuinely consumer-centric point of view. I first got to know the blog as a reader and have long considered it good enough to rank among my 10 favorites. (WebWorkerDaily editor Judi Sohn is also a fan.)
Strategically, it's a publication that rounds out our existing areas of coverage. For instance, GigaOM tracks the world of web infrastructure pretty closely, but very rarely do we write about cloud client machines. And with the exception of the iPhone and some occasional mobile reviews, we don't provide much gadget coverage, either. I think as we start to cover the world of cloud computing more closely we will no longer be able to afford to ignore the client side of the equation.

The blog's writers have blogged about joining GigaOM. They say the move will allow them to focus their time on writing jkOnTheRun.

What will change is a good thing- both Kevin and I have joined the Giga Omni Media group and will be able to focus all of our time on writing for you here on jkOnTheRun. This is exciting for us both and we hope for you too. We will continue to do all of the things you've told us that you like from us, posting on the topics of interest, podcasting and video reviews of hot stuff. Any changes you see here will be merely cosmetic as we can now tap the technical expertise of Giga Omni Media and make the site cleaner and faster. Having these resources at our disposal will not only mean your experience on the site will get better but it means that Kevin and I can concentrate solely on creating the content you crave. Now that's a very good thing.

Right now in both the gadget world and the communication world nothing is taking off like mobile technology. One can barely keep up with new microblogging and mobile communication tools popping up around us. It seems like perfect timing for a blog network like GigaOm to add a mobile gadget blog to its line-up and when it comes to mobile gadget blogs jkOnTheRun is a terrific choice.

Dwight Silverman from Chron.com's TechBlog gives a local perspective on the deal. TechCrunch blogs that there is now "one less independent blog in the world." Jack Schofield at The Guardian asks "Is today's GigaOM tomorrow's News Corp?" That sounds like high praise unless it means Om Malik has to become Rupert Murdoch.