About Us

Lynn Parramore, Laura Rich, and Sara Clemence. Photo by Jon Whitney.

Recessionwire, a user’s guide to the recession, launched on February 9, 2009. The site aims to chronicle the “upside of the downturn” through personal stories, helpful advice and reportage on the changes underway in these hard times. Updated daily, regular features from countless contributors include Lemonade Makers who turned a tough situation around; Recession Lexicon, your guide to the new language of the day; The Recession Will End…, which keeps an eye on economic developments; and Recession Briefing and Screwed, two daily round-ups of significant developments in jobs and the news.

Recessionwire is on Twitter and Facebook, and publishes a daily newsletter. The site is part of the Federated Media ad network.

Founders
Sara Clemence saw her position as lifestyle editor at Condé Nast’s Portfolio.com evaporate at the end of 2008. Three weeks later, she accepted a senior editor position with Domino, only to see the magazine fold that very same day. A longtime journalist, she had jumped to Portfolio from Forbes.com, where she was real estate writer then lifestyle editor. She has also covered business for the Albany Times Union, and spent nearly two years writing about chemical weapons and billion-dollar toxic tort lawsuits for the Anniston Star. She holds masters degrees in writing from Johns Hopkins and journalism from Columbia University.

Lynn Parramore is a freelance writer, producer, and creative consultant whose curiosity has driven her to do impractical stuff ranging from teaching in a remote Czech village to launching a dot-com after the last crash. She holds a doctorate in English from NYU, where she has taught essay writing and cultural theory. Lynn has written a book on Egyptian influences in Western culture (Reading the Sphinx; Palgrave, ‘08), and is the founding editor of IgoUgo.com, the Web’s largest database of first-hand travel reviews. Upon waking up in November to find half of her freelance gigs MIA, she started learning the ukulele and studying Depression-era cultural trends.

Laura Rich worked most recently as assistant managing editor of Condé Nast’s Portfolio.com — until the company sadly began shedding jobs in late 2008. Her prior layoff experience came in 2001, with the folding of the-unbelievable-ride-it-was Internet bible The Industry Standard, where she was senior editor and penned the Rich List column. She was also editorial director at Inc.com and Fastcompany.com, penned a column for the New York Times, and authored the Paul Allen biography The Accidental Zillionaire. As well, she is likely to start websites — having earlier launched relationship site Doomed or Destined — or launch a book group focused on timely economic and geopolitical topics, as with the Blank Slate.