Roman Gokhman and Nick DeCicco founded RIFF in 2016. The two longtime journalists have known each other since 2004, when both worked at a daily newspaper in California’s Gold Country. Gokhman was an ambulance chaser and DeCicco initially a copy editor before also becoming a writer. Both loved music and eventually began to write about it after moving to the Bay Area. Roman wrote for The Bay Area News Group — the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times —for five years before moving on to a few Bay Area music blogs and national publications. Nick has worked for the Daily Republic in Fairfield, California. They finally decided that others were not doing a good job of picking up the slack left behind by crumbling newspapers. After bouncing ideas back and forth for a couple of years, they gave birth to RIFF. Our entire editorial team is composed of journalists. You may recognize their names from newspapers, television or radio. Our contributors are musicians and music industry veterans who know what they’re talking about. And our operations team comes from the tech world, trying to engage readers and viewers in new and innovative ways.