Peter Lennon Koechley
is an American writer and internet entrepreneur. He was the managing editor of ''
The Onion
''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...
'' and co-founded
Upworthy
Upworthy is a website dedicated to positive storytelling. It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of ''The Onion''. One of Facebook's co-founders, Chris ...
.
Biography
Koechley attended
Madison West High School
Madison West High School is a comprehensive four-year high school in Madison, Wisconsin, founded in 1930. Its athletics teams compete in the WIAA Big Eight Conference.
Madison West serves students from four municipalities: Madison, the town of M ...
and graduated from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 2003 with a double major in philosophy and creative writing.
In 2005, he was profiled by
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein (born May 10, 1984) is an American journalist, political analyst, ''New York Times'' columnist, and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founder of '' Vox'' and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. He ha ...
as the youngest staff writer for ''
The Onion
''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...
'' on
Generation Progress
Generation Progress is a youth-centered research and advocacy group that promotes progressive political and social policy through support for young people, students, and activists in the United States. Generation Progress is the youth engagement a ...
.
His association with ''
The Onion
''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...
'' began when he published his first article on the site at age 17 as a high school student in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
.
He also published a satirical newspaper on campus and sent articles to ''
The Onion
''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...
,'' eventually attracting the latter's attention. Later, he began to work at the office of the publication and landed an internship during his senior year in high school as the site's first intern.
At Columbia, he also freelanced for the publication, publishing a total of 25 articles for which he received a payment of $20.
He was hired out of college and became manager editor of the website at age 24.
At ''
The Onion
''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...
,'' Koechley was responsible for creating the
Onion News Network
''Onion News Network'' is a parody television news show that ran for two seasons of ten episodes each, both during 2011, on the Independent Film Channel.
History
In March 2007, ''The Onion'' launched ''The Onion News Network'', a daily web v ...
and gravitated towards tech content.
Koechley joined
MoveOn
MoveOn (formerly known as MoveOn.org) is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest grassroot ...
in 2009 to produce viral media content for the nonprofit group. There he met
Eli Pariser
Eli Pariser (born December 17, 1980) is an author, activist, and entrepreneur. He has stated that his focus is "how to make technology and media serve democracy". He became executive director of MoveOn.org in 2004, where he helped pioneer the pra ...
and the two began to develop a concept for a platform that generates viral content devoted to significant social issues, what they call "social media with a mission".
Their business plan appealed to
Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes (born November 26, 1983) is an American entrepreneur and author who co-founded and served as spokesman for the online social directory and networking site Facebook until 2007. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of ''The New R ...
, who provided them with $500,000 in seed capital.
They also attracted seed capital from
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
co-founder
John Seward Johnson III
John Seward Johnson III (born September 2, 1966) is an American filmmaker, philanthropist and entrepreneur. He is a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I (co-founder of Johnson & Johnson) and the son of artist John Seward Johnson II.
He is the ...
and
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
co-founder
Alexis Ohanian
Alexis Kerry Ohanian ( hy, Ալեքսիս Քերի Օհանյան; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Stev ...
.
In 2012, Koechley and Pariser launched
Upworthy
Upworthy is a website dedicated to positive storytelling. It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of ''The Onion''. One of Facebook's co-founders, Chris ...
.
By the end of October 2012, it has attracted 8.7 million users, leading ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
'' to name it the fastest growing media company in the world.
In 2015, he apologized for
Upworthy
Upworthy is a website dedicated to positive storytelling. It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of ''The Onion''. One of Facebook's co-founders, Chris ...
's out-sized success and pledged to change the algorithm, saying:"We sort of unleashed a monster. Sorry for that. Sorry we kind of broke the internet last year. I'm excited going forward to say goodbye to clickbait."
In 2017, Koechley announced his departure from
Upworthy
Upworthy is a website dedicated to positive storytelling. It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of ''The Onion''. One of Facebook's co-founders, Chris ...
. He has been working with
Compass, Inc.
Compass, Inc. is an American licensed real estate broker that utilizes the Internet as a marketing medium with the use of real estate technology. Compass employs more than 25,000 agents who earn a percentage of the selling price and give a per ...
founder
Robert Reffkin
Robert L. Reffkin is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the online real estate brokerage Compass, Inc. and serves as the company's CEO.
Biography
Reffkin is African Americans, African American and Jews, Jewish and grew up in Berkeley, Calif ...
, in writing the book ''No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can,'' published in 2021.
In 2021, Koechley joined The Our City PAC, a progressive
political action committee supporting left-leaning mayoral and New York City Council candidates.
Personal life
Koechley is born to Barbara E. Koechley and Robert H. Koechley in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
. His father is an executive with
Promega Corporation
Promega Corporation is a Madison, Wisconsin-based manufacturer of enzymes and other products for biotechnology and molecular biology with a portfolio covering the fields of genomics, protein analysis and expression, cellular analysis, drug disc ...
and his mother is a teacher for the
McFarland School District in
McFarland, Wisconsin
The Village of McFarland is located on Lake Waubesa adjacent to the southeast side of the City of Madison in Dane County. The population was 8,991 at the 2020 United States Census. McFarland has approximately 43.50 road miles, is slightly le ...
. In 2009, Koechley married Kristina Williams, also a Madison native.
The couple lives in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koechley, Peter
Living people
People from Madison, Wisconsin
American company founders
American satirists
The Onion people
Madison West High School alumni
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Businesspeople in information technology
Writers from Madison, Wisconsin
American political activists
Year of birth missing (living people)