Until recently, Richard Poynder had been observing and reporting on the evolution of the open access movement for over twenty years. During that time he was variously praised, criticised and threatened. OA advocate Stevan Harnad described Richard as the “chronicler, conscience, and gadfly laureate” of the OA movement. Commenting on one of his articles on social media, on the other hand, a critic remarked: “Printed it off, skimmed it and stuck it into the shredder.” The divergent views on Richard’s open access reporting are perhaps a consequence of its impartiality. In a joint statement in support of Richard’s journalism when he faced legal threats, Stevan Harnad and de facto leader of the OA movement Peter Suber commented: “He is widely respected for his independence, even-handedness, analysis, careful interviews, and detailed research.” Richard’s work has been widely cited, including in a 2011 report on peer review in scientific publications by the British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. During his career Richard has contributed to wide range of specialist, national and international publications, including the Wall Street Journal Europe, Financial Times, Guardian and Telegraph. He has also edited and co-authored two books: Hidden Value and Caught in a Web, Intellectual Property in Cyberspace and contributed to radio programmes. Much of Richard’s writing on open access appeared on his blog Open & Shut. There can be found interviews with OA advocates, essays on open access, along with commentary on the movement.