Why are they publishing this story/these stories? How is it on-brand? Again don't get me wrong. It's great that someone's doing it but... It just feels... wrong from an editorial product management perspective.
1. They're consciously trying to expand their brand and topics. Maybe it's a way to grow a broader audience or move "upscale" or something along those lines.
2. Somebody really wanted to do this, and the organization just ran with it.
Both are respectable options. I'd actually respect them more if it's option 2—building an organization to give enthusiastic people the space to do what they care about is one of the best ways to produce great, creative work. We need more places that are willing to do high quality things just because.
The editors are Kevin Nguyen and Sarah Jeong. I guess the have various other staffers like Camille Bromley do certain articles.
The Verge is publishing this piece in the context of today. There are undocumented migrants right now being moved around and out of country, put into detention centres, and being denied the due process that was previously in place. There is _a lot_ of tech in that ongoing story. To consider America’s history with forced migration at a time like this is perfectly reasonable.
The old 90s tech magazines like CPU magazine or PC World come to mind. Nothing wrong with that kind of publication, and I wish there was more of it.
Not everything has to be about politics.
Peril, etc.
Not to be too facetious, but, where -- uh -- are those magazines today? The internet changed things. Being that hyper-focused on a topic makes for building a good niche, but maybe not a good business.
This kind of content is still out there, but it’s more on youtube or hackaday or maybe TomsHardware.