Tom Cheredar

I’m staff writer and lead media reporter for VentureBeat. Typically, my focus is on tech companies, products, and services related to music, movies, books, TV shows, comic books, digital magazines, and pretty much anything else that’s considered “consumable media.”  I do spend a lot of time covering YouTube, Spotify, Apple/iTunes, and Amazon (among others), but not just from a consumer perspective. I want to drill into the business-end of media companies as they navigate through the jungle of content licensing, fierce competition, and outdated tech legislation. I support VentureBeat’s ethics statement, and I don’t accept gifts from companies I cover, which includes hardware or paid services that frequently pop up in my reporting.

 

Prior to VentureBeat, I was a frequent contributor to Geeks of Doom where I did on-site coverage of events like Comic-Con. Before that, I worked at a handful of local newspapers around Nashville, Tenn. (Perhaps this explains why I consider Spider Jerusalem’s contribution to journalism on par with Marshall McLuhan’s.) I have a degree in journalism from MTSU, and currently live in Austin, Texas.

 

You can contact me via my staff email or through Twitter.   ***Please send all pitches to tips@venturebeat.com***

stories by Tom Cheredar

Google Play has 48B app installs, 2.5B in the last month alone

Google Play is doing pretty darn well, according to an update at today's Google I/O developer conference today.

PaidContent founder’s new travel news startup Skift raises $1.1M

Travel news startup Skift has closed a new $1.1 million round of seed funding, the company announced today.

TechStars expands into Austin with new incubator branch

The latest city that incubator program TechStars will expand into is bustling tech city Austin, Texas, the organization announced today.

Reddit’s new multireddit feature brings a massive change to its front page

It's been years since community news sharing site Reddit has made a major change to how things appear on its coveted front page of popular content, but today the company announced a new feature called multireddits that could do just that.

Hey trekkies, Bing now lets you translate to Klingon (majQa’!)

While Star Trek Into Darkness is still a few days away from premiering in theaters, Microsoft's Bing team is teaming up with Paramount to celebrate a little early with a brand-new feature.

Aereo makes Atlanta the third city to get its TV anywhere service

Aereo has announced that Atlanta, Ga. will be the next market to receive its streaming TV service, with a roll out scheduled for next month.

500 Startups’ sixth batch of companies is chock-full of international flavor

Incubator program 500 Startups is debuting its sixth batch of companies today, which feature quite a few that come from not just outside silicon valley, but also the country.

France wants to add a ‘culture tax’ to Apple & Google products

France isn't exactly known as being the friendliest country for big businesses, especially when it comes to tech companies. Here's another potential example of why.

Netflix’s first Arrested Development season 4 trailer is online

After waiting a good year, Arrested Development fans can finally see the first glimpse of the forthcoming new season.

Mad Genius builds prototype similiar to Sony’s break-apart DualShock 3 controller idea (video)

Hardware gaming accessory company Mad Genius has created a new prototype game controller that looks very similar to the DualShock 3 controller concept Sony showed off years ago.

‘Algoraves’ are algorithm-based dance parties featuring live coding (video)

Can you dance to algorithms? Apparently you can.

Google shuts down SMS search (and barely anyone notices)

Here's some news that will sadden the few hundred tech-savvy people still using feature phones to grab information from the web.

With the Dailymotion deal dead, will Yahoo try buying Hulu?

The latest company rumored to be interested in buying streaming video service Hulu is Yahoo.

Watch out, cable TV: YouTube’s paid channel subscription program is official

Well it's official: YouTube is rolling out a new program that allows some of its premium channel partners to charge consumers a monthly subscription fee to gain access to its content.

Flipboard brings its digital magazine creation tool to Android & the web

Flipboard users on the web and on Android devices no longer have to endure the tyranny of reading a digital magazine that was assembled by someone other than them.

Slacker Radio CEO: Pandora’s 40-hour listening cap drove our record user growth

Over the last few months Slacker Radio has made some big moves to step outside the shadow of rival smart radio service Pandora -- and it's doing so with some help from Pandora itself, according to Slacker Radio CEO Jim Cady.

Microsoft promotes Amy Hood as its new chief financial officer

With Microsoft's chief financial officer Peter Klein announcing that he would step down from the position during the Q3 2012 earnings, the company announced today that corporate vice president Amy Hood will take over the role effective immediately.