(Last updated 1:55 pm CDT August 6th, 2026)
[Update 6/24/2026 to add a link to my final column and to tighten and polish.]
Two days after I’d learned the Houston Chronicle was ending my personal technology column, my daughter urged me in no uncertain terms that I must open my Father’s Day present – which had already arrived – right now, a month ahead of time.
When I did, I discovered why she was so insistent.
I typically write my column on Wednesdays, with the goal of filing by the workday’s end. I call this “Column Day,” because I set all things aside to get it done, including familial relationships. When my daughter calls to chat on the phone, I almost always wave her off, saying, “Sorry, Jess, it’s Column Day.”
The gift, it turns out, was a coffee mug with a picture of Milo, our needy orange tabby, demanding attention above the words “It’s Column Day.”
Sorry, Milo, I’m on deadline.
At this writing, there are four more Column Days. My last Personal Tech dispatch publishes online June 20, and the next day in print. But thanks to Jess’ thoughtfulness and wicked sense of humor, I’ll always have the mug. [Update: You can read that final column here.]
I’ve been writing the column, with a few hiatuses along the way, since 1993. It’s had several names over the years, but it has always had one purpose: To help Houstonians understand the personal technology revolution that continues to roil our collective waters. You can drown in the flood or you can learn to at least dog paddle. If you’re really into it, you might even get to a decent breaststroke.
My column is the longest-running one in the Chronicle at the moment. I consider it an honor that they’ve kept me around. I left the paper in January 2021 after taking a buyout and a planned retirement. But when I announced I was leaving, I got a call from Forbes and an invitation to start a paid tech newsletter for them. I’d loved doing a my newsletter for the Chronicle, one of the paper’s earliest forays into the current trend, and it was doing well, so I jumped at the chance. But Forbes did a lousy job of promoting it, and paid newsletters on topics where there’s so much free content available online tend to falter. Frustrated, I left after a few months.
And when I did, Rob Gavin, then the Chronicle’s business editor, asked if I wanted to resume my local column as a freelancer. I was happy to do so. I was back home.
So it went for more than four years. Monday’s email was a surprise, but I was not all that surprised when it came. I was writing a gadget/gear/app/internet personal technology column that only occasionally focused on local issues for a local publication. Local is the biggest strength newspapers have in the fractured media landscape, and I was not always playing to it. In addition, I was a freelancer, and historically when a publication needs to trim closer to the financial bone, non-staffers are low-hanging fruit.
So the answer to the question, “Did he jump or was he pushed?”, is assuredly the latter. But I had, for some time, been contemplating the former, considering stopping the column when 2026 ended.
Although my column only appeared weekly and took a day to write, it required a lot of time both to prep for it and to keep up with tech developments. Because I was not covering the topic on a daily basis, I had a lot of reading to do to keep up. The writing of Personal Tech was a (mostly) a joy, but staying in the hunt had become a grind.
I turn 70 in August and have been pondering actual retirement. The running joke in my social media profiles is that I am “kinda” retired and that I am “not good at retirement.” Maybe, I had been thinking, it’s time to get good at it. The Chronicle made my decision for me, and as the kids say, I am not even mad.
I also realized after getting the news that I’m almost the last personal tech newspaper columnist standing. When the column first began under the title “Computing,” there were quite a few of us. Back then, tech columnists and the technology sections that hosted them were the new shiny objects at newspapers, but as the internet went mainstream technology coverage moved to that platform – as did just about every other topic, eventually.
As far as I can tell, there’s only one other columnist writing about personal tech in the classical way I did for local papers, and that’s my old friend and one-time book collaborator Larry Magid, whose column still appears in the San Jose Mercury-News. (Hang in there, Larry!)
There are other longtime local tech journalists who once had columns who are still active, but they are doing more news/issues writing these days. The pure chroniclers of consumer digitalia are now found on the web and/or on video, particularly YouTube or TikTok.
Marcus “MKBHD” Brownlee is the new Walt Mossberg.
When I said on social media on Wednesday that my column is ending, a lot of folks asked what I am going to do next. The honest answer at the moment is, “I’m not sure.” I’ve got this oft-neglected blog; I could always do more writing here. There’s always launching yet another paid newsletter to make a little coin. I could consult, or I could do something completely different, not related to writing or tech.
As you may know, I help out with Space City Weather, Eric Berger’s and Matt Lanza’s Houston forecasting blog. That gig scratches a lot of itches – I help with social media, manage the development of the SCW weather app, provide ideas and emotional support, and even do a little writing.
Or I could experiment with doing nothing (except for SCW), perhaps the most radical next step of all. Those who know me well think I could never be idle for long – which may be the best reason of all to try it.
But whatever happens, I consider myself blessed. I’ve able to do for decades what journalists strive most to do – help people – thanks to the Houston Chronicle and the various editors, colleagues and executives who’ve encouraged and supported me.
Even more so, I’ve been blessed by those who have read and followed me over the years. Writing for you has been my career and my calling. I think I have succeeded. What more can I ask?
