Protocol’s next chapter

Axel Springer SE has entered into a deal to purchase Protocol and POLITICO.

Protocol’s next chapter
Image: Protocol

We launched Protocol in February 2020 to cover the evolving power center of tech. Our ambition was to give decision-makers in tech, business and public policy the unbiased news and analysis they need to navigate a world in rapid change. That change has come faster than anyone could have predicted over the last 18 months, and we've been with you every step of the way with a team that's grown to more than 50 across Silicon Valley, New York, Washington and beyond and expanding rapidly.

Today, we're sharing the news that Axel Springer SE has agreed to purchase Protocol from our publisher, Robert Allbritton. While the deal won't close until the fall, we're excited about the prospect of joining a global media and tech company that shares our aspirations for Protocol's global ambitions.

Thank you for being part of the Protocol story so far – and for coming along as we take this new step. We are just getting started.

Tammy Wincup

Tammy Wincup is the former president of Protocol. In 2019, Tammy was a senior adviser to The RISE Fund, a $2 billion global impact fund led by private equity firm TPG in collaboration with a group of renowned stakeholders including U2 lead singer Bono. From 2010 to 2019, Tammy was the COO at EVERFI, an education technology company focused on using digital learning to teach learners critical skills. As COO, Tammy oversaw EVERFI's 600 team members; led the development of national corporate partnerships; oversaw the development of EVERFI's digital platform; and spearheaded the implementation of that technology for over 20,000 customers. Early in her career, Tammy worked at PriceWaterhouse in South Africa and Egypt leading workforce development projects, and later ran customer success for a technology startup in San Francisco and at Diamond Technology Partners. After Sept. 11, 2001, Tammy was appointed to the U.S. Department of State as the director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), where she helped develop and manage a $300 million fund focused on foreign assistance to the Middle East. Tammy is a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow. She also serves as a board trustee at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.

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Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve (@timgrieve) is Protocol's editor-in-chief. A journalist-turned-lawyer-turned-journalist, Tim served in multiple leadership roles at POLITICO and was the founding editor-in-chief of POLITICO Pro. He left POLITICO in 2013 to become editor-in-chief of National Journal, then led the news division at McClatchy, the publisher of the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, and more than two dozen other newspapers around the country. Earlier in his career, Tim was a senior writer at Salon, a reporter at the Sacramento Bee, and the editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily.

Fintech

Judge Zia Faruqui is trying to teach you crypto, one ‘SNL’ reference at a time

His decisions on major cryptocurrency cases have quoted "The Big Lebowski," "SNL," and "Dr. Strangelove." That’s because he wants you — yes, you — to read them.

The ways Zia Faruqui (right) has weighed on cases that have come before him can give lawyers clues as to what legal frameworks will pass muster.

Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Cryptocurrency and related software analytics tools are ‘The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic.’”

That’s not a quote from "The Big Lebowski" — at least, not directly. It’s a quote from a Washington, D.C., district court memorandum opinion on the role cryptocurrency analytics tools can play in government investigations. The author is Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

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Veronica Irwin

Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.

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How is technological innovation breaking down barriers and increasing access to financial services?

The financial technology transformation is driving competition, creating consumer choice, and shaping the future of finance. Hear from seven fintech leaders who are reshaping the future of finance, and join the inaugural Financial Technology Association Fintech Summit to learn more.

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The Financial Technology Association (FTA) represents industry leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-centered financial services and advocate for the modernization of financial regulation to support inclusion and responsible innovation.
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Enterprise

AWS CEO: The cloud isn’t just about technology

As AWS preps for its annual re:Invent conference, Adam Selipsky talks product strategy, support for hybrid environments, and the value of the cloud in uncertain economic times.

Photo: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

AWS is gearing up for re:Invent, its annual cloud computing conference where announcements this year are expected to focus on its end-to-end data strategy and delivering new industry-specific services.

It will be the second re:Invent with CEO Adam Selipsky as leader of the industry’s largest cloud provider after his return last year to AWS from data visualization company Tableau Software.

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Donna Goodison

Donna Goodison (@dgoodison) is Protocol's senior reporter focusing on enterprise infrastructure technology, from the 'Big 3' cloud computing providers to data centers. She previously covered the public cloud at CRN after 15 years as a business reporter for the Boston Herald. Based in Massachusetts, she also has worked as a Boston Globe freelancer, business reporter at the Boston Business Journal and real estate reporter at Banker & Tradesman after toiling at weekly newspapers.

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Farewell from Protocol

Image: Protocol

We launched Protocol in February 2020 to cover the evolving power center of tech. It is with deep sadness that just under three years later, we are winding down the publication.

As of today, we will not publish any more stories. All of our newsletters, apart from our flagship, Source Code, will no longer be sent. Source Code will be published and sent for the next few weeks, but it will also close down in December.

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Bennett Richardson

Bennett Richardson ( @bennettrich) is the president of Protocol. Prior to joining Protocol in 2019, Bennett was executive director of global strategic partnerships at POLITICO, where he led strategic growth efforts including POLITICO's European expansion in Brussels and POLITICO's creative agency POLITICO Focus during his six years with the company. Prior to POLITICO, Bennett was co-founder and CMO of Hinge, the mobile dating company recently acquired by Match Group. Bennett began his career in digital and social brand marketing working with major brands across tech, energy, and health care at leading marketing and communications agencies including Edelman and GMMB. Bennett is originally from Portland, Maine, and received his bachelor's degree from Colgate University.

machine learning
Enterprise

Why large enterprises struggle to find suitable platforms for MLops

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, and as larger enterprises go from deploying hundreds of models to thousands and even millions of models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

Photo: artpartner-images via Getty Images

On any given day, Lily AI runs hundreds of machine learning models using computer vision and natural language processing that are customized for its retail and ecommerce clients to make website product recommendations, forecast demand, and plan merchandising. But this spring when the company was in the market for a machine learning operations platform to manage its expanding model roster, it wasn’t easy to find a suitable off-the-shelf system that could handle such a large number of models in deployment while also meeting other criteria.

Some MLops platforms are not well-suited for maintaining even more than 10 machine learning models when it comes to keeping track of data, navigating their user interfaces, or reporting capabilities, Matthew Nokleby, machine learning manager for Lily AI’s product intelligence team, told Protocol earlier this year. “The duct tape starts to show,” he said.

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Kate Kaye

Kate Kaye is an award-winning multimedia reporter digging deep and telling print, digital and audio stories. She covers AI and data for Protocol. Her reporting on AI and tech ethics issues has been published in OneZero, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, CityLab, Ad Age and Digiday and heard on NPR. Kate is the creator of RedTailMedia.org and is the author of "Campaign '08: A Turning Point for Digital Media," a book about how the 2008 presidential campaigns used digital media and data.

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