Michael Shawn Malone (born January 21, 1954) is an American author, columnist, editor, investor, businessman, television producer, and has been the host of several shows on PBS.[1][2] As of 2009[update], Malone is a columnist for ABC News, an op-ed contributor for The Wall Street Journal, a contributing editor to Wired, and the editor-in-chief of Edgelings.com, a website focused on business and technology news in Silicon Valley.[1][2]
Malone is the author of numerous books and has written the "Silicon Insider" column for ABC since 2000.[3] In his professional writing he usually uses the name Michael S. Malone, to distinguish his work from that of another U.S. author named Michael Malone, primarily a writer of fiction.
Malone worked in public relations for Hewlett-Packard Co. before joining the San Jose Mercury-News in 1979.[2] During 1980, he joined the San Jose Mercury News and became one of the nation's first daily high-tech reporters.[1][4][5]
For his work breaking stories on toxic waste, drugs, sweatshops, and espionage, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize twice,[2] but he quickly left The Mercury News in 1981 and became a freelancer. Malone's work appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, Forbes ASAP, Upside Magazine, Fast Company, The New York Times, and others under various roles between 1981 and 2001.[2]
Of his work for ABC, Malone has written that "Over the near-decade I've had this job, I've probably written five columns that drew major national attention: calling for Dan Rather's firing, declaring the decline of Microsoft, predicting the death of newspapers, naming Matt Drudge the most influential journalist in America[6] and" (alleging liberal) "media bias in the recent" (2008) "presidential election."[3]
In 2004, he was named a Distinguished Friend of Oxford University.[2]
Malone produced the four-episode/four-hour PBS miniseries The New Heroes (2005), with colleague Bob Grove and executive producer David Davis. He also authored liner notes for the accompanying soundtrack CD.
Hosted by Robert Redford, "The New Heroes" was about social entrepreneurship.[7] The series, which aired in primetime, was nominated for an Emmy (27th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards) in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in a Craft: Cinematography", but did not win.[1]
In August 2008, Malone led a group of twenty Boy Scouts and troop leaders from Troop 466 in the Sunnyvale, California area on a 56-mile trek on horseback from Fort Reno, Oklahoma to Enid, Oklahoma. Malone said that he wanted to find another unique experience, after having previously taken Scouts in his troop on a 192-mile hike across England.[9]
Publications
The Craft of Professional Writing: A Guide for Amateur and Professional Writers, Anthem Press, July 2018, ISBN978-1-78308830-0
Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company, Harper Business, July 15, 2014, ISBN978-0-06-222676-1
Big Issues: The Examined Life in a Digital Age, Wiley, 2001, ISBN0-471-41491-3
Infinite Loop: How the World's Most Insanely Great Computer Company Went Insane, Aurum Press Ltd., 2000, ISBN978-1-85410-693-3
Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company's True Value by Finding Its Hidden Brainpower, by Leif Edvinsson and Michael S. Malone, Harpercollins, 1997, ISBN978-0-88730-841-3
Virtual Selling: Going Beyond the Automated Sales Force to Achieve Total Sales Quality, by Michael S. Malone and Thomas M. Siebel, Free Press, 1996, ISBN0-684-82287-3
The Virtual Corporation: Structuring and Revitalizing the Corporation for the 21st Century, by William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone, Harpercollins, 1992, ISBN978-0-88730-593-1
Going Public: MIPS Computer and the Entrepreneurial Dream, Harper Perennial, 1992, ISBN978-0-06-098106-8
The Big Score: The Billion Dollar Story of Silicon Valley, Doubleday, 1985, ISBN978-0-385-18351-2