His rise and fall and rise again during the 1980s and '90s helped define the transition from boys-will-be-boys notepad journalism to the buttoned-up, professional digital recorders of today.
All the conversation, content and context from a meeting or brainstorming session, even scribbles on a notepad or Post-it note, could be captured, preserving not just the idea, but the authentic, original form of the idea.