Earlier this year I shared a new vision for Lifehacker, along with a lofty personal goal: for our site to provide some of the most informative content anywhere on the internet. At the time, Lifehacker was newly acquired by Ziff Davis from G/O Media, and I was both cautiously optimistic about our new business home and grateful for the changes to come. Eight months later, I'm proud to share some of those changes, and reinvite you to join our community of experts, tinkerers, and lifelong learners.
Welcome to our new site
Lifehacker has a new homepage design, logo, and site navigation, but we've also refocused our brand. Longtime readers might remember Lifehacker's evolution from a tech site to a broader "lifestyle" hub, and in many ways, we've come full circle: You can expect a lot more tech from Lifehacker going forward, including reviews covering computers, smartphones, smart home devices, smartwatches, tablets, TVs, and accessories; as well as how-to guides, explainers, and product recommendations. Our cooking, entertainment, finance, and fitness content aren't going anywhere, but you can expect a sharper focus on the tech and tools you might consider buying, and how to most effectively use them.
We also have a new, clear, straightforward mission: to offer reliable tech help and credible, practical, science-based advice. That statement is our North Star for the topics we choose to cover and how we approach them, and you can expect each Lifehacker story to either offer suggestions on something you should consider trying, or offer the information you need to help you make your own decision. We want to go beyond reporting the news to explain what you can do in response to evolving technology, events, and trends.
You can also expect our team to grow. Lifehacker is made up of full-time staff writers and a group of experienced freelancers, and as our tech and product coverage expands, so will our roster of contributors. Most of your favorite writers are still here, though: Stephen Johnson is continuing his Out-of-Touch Adults Guide series, Beth Skwarecki is still debunking viral TikTok myths, Allie Chanthorn Reinmann is still cooking and baking, and Meghan Walbert still has the most thoughtful advice on parenting in the digital age. Lifehacker alumni are also doing amazing things after their experience here, and I hope you find them too. (We'll miss you Claire, and we'll be cheering for you over at Milk Street.)
Lifehacker has always had some amazing people on staff, and I encourage you to get to know them based on your interests—or, even better, let them inspire you to grow interested in something new. And as Lifehacker becomes more of a community—one built on lifelong learning and shared knowledge—there are three ways I want to encourage you to be involved.
First, make friends in the comments. Lifehacker isn't on our old platform Kinja anymore, so if you want to chat with writers or other readers, create an account with our new commenting platform OpenWeb. Consider it a fresh start to your comments history, as well as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with our new guidelines. The gist is simple: Have fun. Be respectful. Feel free to criticize ideas, but not people. Treat others as respectfully online as you hopefully do in person. I hate bullies (read my memoir, it's a doozy), and I have no interest in running an unmoderated forum that allows for jerk behavior, let alone abuse or bigotry. Spam filters will probably be overzealous sometimes, so there might be a delay in seeing your words online, but a human will handle moderation quickly. This will make our comments section a more welcoming and useful community for everyone.
Second, look out for our new newsletters. We currently have our main daily newsletter, but there are several more topic-specific ones on their way. Watch for writers like Jake Peterson writing a newsletter about tech, Allie Chanthorn Reinmann writing about food, Beth Skwarecki and Meredith Dietz writing about fitness, and me writing about life, Lifehacker, and self-improvement. The first new newsletter, The Download, is focused on tech and launching soon.
If you made it this far, you're probably a longtime reader of Lifehacker. So, third: If you have any thoughts or comments, feel free to reach out to me directly. I love this brand more than you can imagine, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make it as helpful a place as possible. Of course, I have to do that within a larger context of business, journalism, and digital media, but my team and I work hard to make this site the best place it can be. You can reach me via email at [email protected] or on Instagram or Threads. Outside of Lifehacker, I sometimes write about culture for Black Nerd Problems or The Atlantic, and I enjoy responding to thoughtful readers who are often surprised to receive a response. I look forward to doing more of that here. This is a great site with incredible contributors and readers. I'm thrilled to show it off, but even more excited about the things we'll learn together.