Paul Boutin
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Paul Boutin (December 11, 1961 – October 18, 2025<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) was an American magazine writer and editor who wrote about technology in a pop-culture context.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Boutin, who began writing for Wired in 1997,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> wrote for The New York Times from 2003 to 2013,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> covered emerging technologies for MIT's Technology Review,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was a freelancer for Newsweek.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> From 2009 to 2010 he covered Internet business and culture for VentureBeat.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was a senior writer and editor for Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag from 2006 to 2008,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and a tech columnist for Slate from 2002 to 2008.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
His work has also appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, The New Republic, MSNBC, Reader's Digest, Adweek, Engadget, Salon.com, Outside, Cargo, Business 2.0, the Independent Film & Video Monthly, InfoWorld and PC World.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Before turning pro as a journalist, he spent 15 years as an engineer and manager at MIT, where he worked on Project Athena,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and at several Internet-related startup companies in Silicon Valley including Splunk.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Before his death, he worked as a strategy consultant to tech startups. He was the creator and maintainer of the supervent open-source synthetic event generator.