Rich Jaroslovsky, Senior Advisor at SmartNews Inc.

Rich Jaroslovsky’s career goal was to be the D.C. correspondent for a major newspaper.

He achieved that - at 22 - for a little outlet called The Wall Street Journal.

He covered Gerald Ford’s doomed re-election campaign in 1976. Five years later, mere hours after President Reagan was shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley, Rich was at the White House, standing a few feet from Secretary of State Al Haig when Haig infamously said, ‘I am in control here.’ Unfortunately for Secretary Haig’s legacy, the Constitution says otherwise.

But covering all that history is just the first part of Rich’s story.

In 1994, he combined his two loves - technology and journalism - and started WSJ.com, the Journal’s website. Through that role, his founding of the Online News Association in 1999, his work at Bloomberg and Smart News, and his role as a lecturer at numerous journalism schools over the years, Rich Jaroslovsky is quite possibly the most important person in the history of digital journalism.

Rich recently joined us to discuss his multi-faceted career, digital journalism’s next chapter (hint: AI), and his connections to everyone from tech journalism legend Walt Mossberg to Canada’s finest singer/songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, for this episode of Pressing Matters, from Big Valley Marketing, the podcast that brings you conversations with the top media and influencers in B2B Tech. 

I’m Dave Reddy, head of Big Valley Marketing’s Media + Influencers Practice and your host. Through research and good old-fashioned relationship-building, we’ve identified B2B Tech’s Top 200 media and influencers, including Rich Jaroslovsky. 

Here’s my chat with Rich. Enjoy.