DailyTech - Editor In Chief and CEO of Tom's Hardware Both Step Down

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Internet Editor In Chief and CEO of Tom's Hardware Both Step Down
Sven Olsen (Blog) - January 30, 2006 4:22 PM

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50 comment(s) - last by dream caster.. on Mar 22 at 5:36 PM

Over the weekend Tom's Hardware had a small changing of the guard

For those of you who didn't see this coming, David Strom, the Editor and Chief of Tomshardware.com, has stepped down after one year of service with the company. David's personal blog, revealed the following:

Enough about Web Informant. I am a professional trade journalist. I have written over a thousand magazine articles and two full-length books, one of whom I was fortunate enough to be a co-author with the fantabulous Marshall T. Rose. My last full time gig was running the editorial operations for Tom’s Hardware. I have started numerous specialty Web sites for computer enthusiasts, electronics engineers, and other uber-geeks, along with being the founding editor-in-chief for the print Network Computing magazine, which continues to do its thing some 15 years later.

A quick look on the TGP about page also reveals that Tom Pabst has stepped down as CEO of the company, and has been replaced by Omid Rahmat.

Update From the EIC: Omid from Tom's Hardware tells me David Strom has not worked at the company since December 2005, and that Tom Pabst was never the CEO of the company.

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Very, very, very old news...

By Amckenna on 1/31/2006 4:29:22 AM , Rating: 2

Hi there,

I'm Aaron McKenna, one of the managing editors over at Tom's (and rather surprisingly, I like to read Anandtech...)

Anyways, FYI David Strom left THG in early December, so this news is a tad old. As for Tom himself, well that's even older news. I think that this may be more of a case of "Ohh, look what we've found, now it's time to gloat!" Go stick a USB device in it.

(Sorry, sorry, cheap shot I know, but that review of Core Duo really brings a smile to my face. Aren't we the ones accused of being the forgiving Intel fan boys?)

Best,

Aaron

RE: Very, very, very old news...

By The Cheeba on 1/31/2006 6:13:01 AM , Rating: 2

Uhhhh...

You're this guy?

http://images.tomshardware.com/images/people/aaron... (hit refresh)

quote:
Anyways, FYI David Strom left THG in early December, so this news is a tad old. As for Tom himself, well that's even older news. I think that this may be more of a case of "Ohh, look what we've found, now it's time to gloat!" Go stick a USB device in it.

Sure, just as soon as I stop writing gay fact-less editorials based on my opion as a 15 year old gamer. Oh wait, that's YOU.

http://tgpublishing.net/editorial.php

You don't even rank up high enough on the totem pole to get a spot on the TGP editorial profile (but youre the "managing editor")... Seriously kid, most of us were done with college before you were born... My, how the mighty have fallen.

Cheeb.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By Amckenna on 1/31/2006 6:23:35 AM , Rating: 2

Wow, now that is big of you! Call the editor names when you don't want to look at the point. "Gay", now there's a word I stopped using when I was 15. You want me to put my resume on a USB stick and mail it over?

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By The Cheeba on 1/31/2006 7:40:18 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
now there's a word I stopped using when I was 15

So like, last year?

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By Amckenna on 1/31/2006 7:47:58 AM , Rating: 2

Your sense of humour is in danger of making me smirk. Perhaps you'd like to get back to the topic on hand before you start sounding monotonous?

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By timmiser on 1/31/2006 7:24:40 PM , Rating: 2

Hook... Line... and Sinker.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By gsellis on 1/31/2006 7:45:26 AM , Rating: 2

There are still some AMD fanboys that hold a grudge because Tom's exposed the bug in the thermal protection during the last ice age.

I have to admit, the articles have gotten a little mainstream, so it sort of left all the techheads out. And a few articles had some, err, interesting methodologies. But hey, for folks that claim they are technical, if they cannot sort through it to read what is important, they are deluding themselves on their skills. I have seen recent whinings about articles at AT too. They whiners are wrongly assuming that if you are a journalist, you must be perfect. When you aren't, start throwing rocks.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By bldckstark on 1/31/2006 1:33:34 PM , Rating: 2

Tom's did an article recently about how to pick up girls while gaming. Shortly after that they had an article defending that jackoff attorney who was bashing GTA. Right now they have an article about one guys home network (In Part 2 of our series, Jim Buzbee describes what works and doesn't for his version of networked home video). This is the lamest crap I have ever read. Yes, I read it. I refused to believe that the articles could be as bad as they sounded. Guess I'm just gullible, cuz they sucked worse than my daughters Teen Beat stories.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By Amckenna on 1/31/2006 6:25:49 AM , Rating: 2

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/about_us/editorial.p...

By the by.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By The Cheeba on 1/31/2006 7:40:57 AM , Rating: 2

Why does the UK site not say the same things as the .COM site?

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By Amckenna on 1/31/2006 7:44:50 AM , Rating: 2

Clerical issue.

But back to the point, what's the purpose of this news item? It's all old news, even the "new" bit in it.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By maevinj on 1/31/2006 8:54:23 AM , Rating: 2

So it must be a slow day over @ Tom's for one of their staffers to be over on Daily Tech bashing their news article. You know if Tom's had any ballz they'd have the same comment feature on their articles for readers to post on.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By Saril on 1/31/2006 11:46:07 AM , Rating: 4

Well slow day or not, its very interesting that someone from THG has come over to defend the kingdom. I mean, it its just the usual crowd talking thats one thing, but when someone from the other camp comes along well...that just makes things all the more interesting no? :)

As for my own opinion, THG has gotten a bit mainstream, but you cannot make decisions or form opinions based on one publication's words. Thats why we bookmark a few websites and use our own inteligence to form opinions ;)

So cheers to Aaron for stepping up on this one too btw.

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RE: Very, very, very old news...

By photoguy99 on 2/4/2006 1:18:33 PM , Rating: 2

"Anyways, FYI David Strom left THG in early December..."

How is it possible that an editor does not know that "anyways" is not a word?

Sure we all make spelling and grammar mistakes, but "anyways" is just a pure lack of knowledge that I would guess might get you fired from some publications if caught posting it on the net.

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Does Intel still pay him?

By bbomb on 1/30/2006 4:48:53 PM , Rating: 2

Will this mean fewer biased stories? I will say its been at least 2 years since I went to his site. Their articles just appeared to be paid for with little or no actual journalism in them.

RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By BigLan on 1/30/2006 4:58:35 PM , Rating: 1

Yeah, Tom's has been awful for a long time. Maybe the changing of the guard will be a good thing, and toms will be a reputable site fairly soon.

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By Maximilian on 1/30/2006 5:22:12 PM , Rating: 2

It wont be "toms" anymore though.... BOO!!

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By smitty3268 on 1/30/2006 6:55:06 PM , Rating: 2

I quit reading toms after they put up a review of the GeForce 5600 Ultra. It slaughtered the Radeon 9700 in their tests, and I decided I couldn't really trust any of their other articles anymore.

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By deeznuts on 1/30/2006 5:27:40 PM , Rating: 1

An old buddy of mine once said:

Confucius says, "He who reads and believes Tom's Hardware is a fool!"

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By WileCoyote on 2/3/2006 3:52:05 PM , Rating: 2

Actually it was Mr. T who said that and I believe the correct quote was "I pit the fool who reads and believes Tom's Hardware!"

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By WileCoyote on 2/3/2006 3:52:44 PM , Rating: 2

Actually it was Mr. T who said that and I believe the correct quote was "I pity the fool who reads and believes Tom's Hardware!"

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By Saist on 1/30/2006 5:31:22 PM , Rating: 2

oi... I wish to second my voice to that opinion. I haven't read THG in literal years due to the nature and tone of several of the articles. Perhaps this is a good thing, but only time will tell if anything has changed.

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RE: Does Intel still pay him?

By Viditor on 1/30/2006 7:35:14 PM , Rating: 2

Actually, it's Omid who's the problem. THG has gone rampant "cash for comment" ever since that guy started...

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crap

By phaxmohdem on 1/30/2006 5:37:58 PM , Rating: 2

When I first saw the title to this, I thought it may have been due to the lambasting of other review sites / Uber self righteous gloating about their USB Core Duo bug find. That article pissed me off reading it, and realizing how highly they think of themselves there.

RE: crap

By RedStar on 1/30/2006 6:47:14 PM , Rating: 2

i actually cared enough to send in a response to that lameness.

I agree with what you say about the crowing --esp as they praised the infamous a8n-sli deluxe (original version) among other things.

But what kinds of things make you think tom was biased?
I know when he talked (well his site nowadays) nvidia..ati fans claimed bias...and when he went to town on nvidia, ati fans clamoured for blood :)

---

tomshardware seems to have got a new make over because they were taken over. So perhaps he was pushed out.

And now he will lose his name like peter norton.

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RE: crap

By webdoggy on 1/30/2006 6:54:28 PM , Rating: 1

Wow none of you have your facts right, Omid has been with toms since around 2000 so thats old news.

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RE: crap

By phaxmohdem on 1/30/2006 10:55:02 PM , Rating: 2

where did I mention Tom being biased? I simply stated I didn't care for there public bashing of all other review sites over this USB driver bug or whatever it will turn out to be.

Forums are easy Read... THEN post :)

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RE: crap

By RedStar on 2/1/2006 10:39:26 PM , Rating: 2

Never said you did...i was referring to all the posts.
I just click on reply to yours cause you have to stick it somewhere... and the biggest point for me was in agreeing with your "crowing" take.

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RE: crap

By RedStar on 2/1/2006 10:40:25 PM , Rating: 2

well ambiguous i was.. you [general]

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RE: crap

By RedStar on 2/1/2006 10:46:44 PM , Rating: 2

Ah nvm i now see the anwer to that second part. Didn't realise Tom actually disappeared years ago. Heh i was kinda assuming he was entenched in the labs doing the research.

My ignorance to be sure :)

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Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy

By davelarson on 1/30/2006 6:55:31 PM , Rating: 2

Could it be that Sven has just a bad day or is he just lazy? Or am I the only one that has noticed the departure of Strom a few weeks ago? Hopefully the author does better research on other stories.

RE: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy

By webdoggy on 1/30/2006 6:57:34 PM , Rating: 1

He left some time in Dec. The author obviusly did NOT do his research..

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RE: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 1/30/2006 8:49:37 PM , Rating: 5

quote:
by webdoggy on January 30, 2006 at 6:57 PM

He left some time in Dec. The author obviusly did NOT do his research..

In case anyone is interested, the above comment was posted by Max Wilson from the Tom's Hardware mail server IP. Slick.

Kristopher

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RE: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy

By Reflex on 1/30/2006 10:06:00 PM , Rating: 2

After reading some comments regarding ACPI in 2001, I contacted Tom's to offer some assistance and corrections. They blew me off completely and told me I knew not of which I spoke. The annoying thing is that I mailed him from my Microsoft address and signed it "Windows Core Test - ACPI Team" which was my job function. I helped design that spec, but they could care less about fixing some articles regarding mutli-CPU APIC and ACPI comments, and their laptop assumptions were way off. It was frustrating and it really burst my bubble about what web site owners truly knew.

To your credit, Anandtech has always been willing to admit mistakes and take advice from experts in their community, which is why I still come here(and Ars Technica).

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RE: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy

By Reflex on 1/30/2006 10:07:23 PM , Rating: 2

Oh, one other thing, Tom left the site about a year ago, so its technically not new news, but oh well. ;)

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What happened to Tom Pabst?

By danielc56 on 1/31/2006 7:29:57 PM , Rating: 2

I started my tech adventures on the Net 8 or 9 years ago; reading articles by Anand and Tom. Aces Hardware used to be pretty good to. I still have Anandtech bookmarks about "K6 Upgrade Guide", "i810 chipset review", and "SDRAM: Hype or the Future?" Sheesh, I feel old.

So whatever happened to Tom? Anand still posts (much appreciated) articles here, but it seems Tom just fell off his site. Please no insults; we're all mature geeks here, right? I'd just like to know...

danielc56

RE: What happened to Tom Pabst?

By Staples on 2/1/2006 12:23:29 AM , Rating: 2

It is the same question I asked in my post. I have not seen anything written by Tom in at least 5 years. Back when he was the only writer for the site, it used to be interesting. But once Ohmid came along (I believe he was the second writer, Tom disappeared. I remember there was a time where it was just those two and then after a while, Ohmid took a break from the site but then came back. Soon there were like 10 other editors and the site went downhill fast. Wonder if they still have those 100 page review/benchmarks. That was enough reason to stop visiting.

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RE: What happened to Tom Pabst?

By wileec on 2/2/2006 5:53:40 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know either what happened to him. Maybe he got tired of all the negative comments people made of his site.

All I know is that he wasn't very computer literate . I think he was a noob with little experience, when he first started the website. I remember making a comment to one of his reviews several years ago and correcting him. He kept telling me I was wrong and would make ridiculous slander comments against me on the forums. He just couldn't take the truth that he was wrong. That's why I haven't visited the site since.

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RE: What happened to Tom Pabst?

By dream caster on 3/22/2006 5:36:32 PM , Rating: 2

When I started reading internet Tom Pabst posted really good articles about video cards; I loved the personal feeling he put into them and the passion they showed.

After some time whithout any articles I read my last article by him; it was about a quarrel he had with another site; I kind of remember it was with Hardocp (not really sure) and he felt too much hurt and told that he had retired from writing because internet wasn't anymore a pleasant experience and had too much of harsh feelings cause of rants. That was the last I knew of him.

I did not know Tom Pabst tolerated badly critics and opposition, but this is rather expectable reafter reading his articles

I miss that personal, that enthusiast flavor that most sites had years ago. Anandtech has managed to keep some of it.

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4tres

By 8steve8 on 1/30/2006 6:35:19 PM , Rating: 2

speculation... maybe he was just tired of tech news and reviewing the newest 500 video cards based on the same chipset.

seriously , after 10 yrs, id get sick of it.

buh bye

By retrospooty on 1/30/2006 7:24:22 PM , Rating: 2

good luck, and good riddance. I havent soured my browser with Tom's biased crap for at least 5 years.

It all went downhill with Omit Rahmat

By maxusa on 1/30/2006 11:10:30 PM , Rating: 2

I remember when this clown joined THG back in the days of 3Dfx takeover by nVidia. He started posting his junk filled with Latin quotes (verbatim) very few people could actually understand. I don't know much details about the bias and behind-the-scenes events at THG, but Omid finally ended up as CEO. Wow! Reminds me of Mike Capellas, Carly Fiorina, and other illusive leaders of our time. Guess I know what to expect: more of the pomptous regurgitation and some more Latin coming up now that he's got the license to do anything.

Omid Rahmat = TH's Disease

By ocyl on 1/30/2006 11:58:25 PM , Rating: 2

I agree with the above comments that Omid is the problem here. He is the reason why I quit reading Tom's Hardware.

up there with Cnet.com

By gooser on 2/1/2006 4:30:02 PM , Rating: 2

Tom's is right up there with CNet.com
Everytime i leave their site as I was lead astray through a Google search for a specific review, I leave pissed off and more confused than when I originally did the search. I know, one would say fool me once yadda, but I think, "Hell, I'll give em a chance." ...stupid

Printer Reviews

By Galloway1520 on 2/4/2006 1:25:05 PM , Rating: 2

This WAS news to me, as I hadn't heard it yet.
BTW- I stopped reading Toms for a while now, too.
I had enjoied their Printer reviews & have used them for several Ink Jet purchased, as they actually tested 'Cost per Page' & 'per Picture' etc.
I think they were inaccurate more than they were biased on hardware.
When they bashed* [H]ard|OCP on or after 9/11/01 for posting News, that really hacked me off, & I stopped regularly visiting their site.

*[H] posted news from CNN, etc. because on 9/11 & after, there was such overload at the news sites, people couldn't not near a TV/radio, or over seas, couldn't find anything out. Tom accused them of useing the tradegy to imorally gain from their ads, when one of the first things Kyle did was turn off the ad counters for more bandwidth & no ^income.

Tom Pabst still exists?

By Staples on 1/30/2006 8:20:54 PM , Rating: 2

I remember when he used to write the articles on his site and it used to be interesting. I have not seen his name or any articles from him in at least 5 years.