Long-time Apple and consumer technology journalist Walt Mossberg retiring

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Heralded tech journalist Walt Mossberg is retiring in June after a 47-year career, 26 of it exclusively focusing on consumer technology including extensive coverage of Apple, and a great deal of time with Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.




Mossberg announced his intention to retire on Friday. He will be retiring shortly after the Code Conference in June -- an event he founded with fellow ex-Wall Street Journal staffer and long-time colleague Kara Swisher.

Following graduation from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Mossberg signed on with The Wall Street Journal in 1970. He shifted over to his Personal Technology column full-time in 1991. In his Thursday Mossberg's Mailbox column at the paper, he frequently covered Apple's problems in the '90s and return to prominence following the iMac and iPod launch.

Mossberg famously hosted a discussion with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in 2007 during the All Things D conference, where both Jobs and Gates discussed the mobile future of computing.





"I can walk down the streets here in Washington and loads of people -- most people you know have no idea who I am, but it's a little different if I'm at a computer trade show or something, where a lot more people do know who I am," said Mossberg to C-Span in 2009 about his fame and reputation as a make-or-break reviewer. "So, my reaction is it sort of comes with the territory."

He launched Recode with Swisher in 2014, which was acquired by Vox Media in 2015.

"[Retiring] wasn't prompted by my employer, or by some dire health diagnosis," wrote Mossberg, about his departure. "It just seems like the right time to step away. I'm ready for something new."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    He probably got tired of dealing with the idiots at Vox.
    andrewj5790thewhitefalconimergingeniousRacerhomieX
  • Reply 2 of 18
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    The choice between working with Nilay Patel and an anonymous death lead to the expected result. Good choice, Walt :-)
    SpamSandwichStrangeDaysimergingeniousRacerhomieXwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 18
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    I didn't know much of him until I became an Apple investor/trader in 2011, and since then my view has been that he's sort of a tech journalist for the casual technology consumer, which is exactly the beat he covered.  But he suffered from the same lack of real insight that most analysts suffer from, and likely for the same reason; like most analysts, he covered a wide range and so developed that broad but shallow view that so greatly frustrates us who dig very deep and have the time to imagine the future focused on just one or a few technology players.  There are, in my opinion, only a very few outside the halls of Cupertino who bring real insight into the potential and likely future directions of Apple, a company I, for one, almost exclusively focus on and made my fortune investing in and trading.  If only they could see inside some of the minds of those who participate here,  
    edited April 2017 andrewj5790SpamSandwichStrangeDayspscooter63cornchip
  • Reply 4 of 18
    He probably got tired of dealing with the idiots at Vox.

    Or he's an elderly person who has plenty of money and just wants to enjoy life without deadlines.

    More power to him. I think his generally-pro-Apple voice in the WSJ was invaluable to Apple in it's pre-iPhone incarnation. The credibility of the most widely read business publication was likely very important to Apple in the bad old days when it would have been easy to write-off Apple as relevant as the Amiga or the like. I remember reading his reviews of Apple products and thinking "that's right! That's why I love my Mac and it is qualitatively different from even fastest or most stylish Wintel offering." He really "got" Apple and could communicate the value of Apple products to the average person (and it just so happened that his average reader was a successful business person).

    Enjoy your retirement, Walt.

    edited April 2017 radarthekatStrangeDaysanantksundaramRacerhomieXpscooter63ration aljony0
  • Reply 5 of 18
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    sog35 said:
    dreyfus2 said:
    The choice between working with Nilay Patel and an anonymous death lead to the expected result. Good choice, Walt :-)
    LOLOLOLOLOLOOLOL!

    Its TRUE!  Walt's article began to get really low quality once he went to the Verge.

    He even said the Note7 was better than any iPhone!

    Nilay Patel is a real certified moron. Still puzzles me how he got that job.
    I'm not about to make any comparisons between phones, but just because the Note 7 had battery issues it doesn't mean it wasn't just as good if not better than any iPhone out at that particular time. I never got to use a Note 7 so I'm not going to say one way or the other. Of course were all pretty bias here so its hard for most here to hear something is better than Apple product A, B, or C. 
    singularity
  • Reply 6 of 18
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    sog35 said:
    dreyfus2 said:
    The choice between working with Nilay Patel and an anonymous death lead to the expected result. Good choice, Walt :-)
    LOLOLOLOLOLOOLOL!

    Its TRUE!  Walt's article began to get really low quality once he went to the Verge.

    He even said the Note7 was better than any iPhone!

    Nilay Patel is a real certified moron. Still puzzles me how he got that job.
    Patel and Josh Whats-his-name got into a power struggle, which led to Vox management siding with Patel & Josh leaving. I remember reading about the conflicts from the writers who worked there and I remember a flight of writers soon after Patel took over. He's a huge jerk.

    EDIT: Joshua Topolsky was the name I couldn't remember.
    edited April 2017 imergingeniouspscooter63cornchip
  • Reply 7 of 18
    mygigmygig Posts: 40member
    too bad, really enjoyed reading his stuff :) Wish you a happy life Walt!
  • Reply 8 of 18
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,075member
    I really enjoy the CtrlWaltDel podcast with Nilat and Walt.   They seem to enjoy what they do.  The Apple insider podcast has really smart guys, but some times the guys sound like they don't want to be there or they are trying to be too serious journalists.
    break out a couple beers guys.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    coolfactorcoolfactor Posts: 2,239member
    He'll get bored and be back in some capacity. Sometimes, passions are in the blood.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    He'll get bored and be back in some capacity. Sometimes, passions are in the blood.
    Taking retirement is one way to get out of a long-term contract.
    cornchip
  • Reply 11 of 18
    I re-watched this D interview...Listening to Mossberg is painful. Stevo and Bill were funny, smart and gracious with each other. It was nice to see Stevo again. 

    I like the sly look Stevo got on his face when Mosberg asked them both what they saw as a future computer device. Knowing now that Apple was working on the iPad having stopped work on it the to get the iPhone to market first. Good fun.

    Best
    cornchip
  • Reply 12 of 18
    Too bad it is him and not Kara S. retiring.
    He and his candid reviews will be missed.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    felix01felix01 Posts: 294member
    Apple is going to need somebody to carry the water. Hopefully John Gruber.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    JinTechJinTech Posts: 1,020member
    felix01 said:
    Apple is going to need somebody to carry the water. Hopefully John Gruber.
    Or Jim Dalrymple.
    cornchip
  • Reply 15 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    JinTech said:
    felix01 said:
    Apple is going to need somebody to carry the water. Hopefully John Gruber.
    Or Jim Dalrymple.
    Or the artist formerly known as Prince McLean. Apple could actually trust AppleInsider the most to deliver a positive account of any news they wanted to share. Those other two guys still spin negative and highly anecdotal viewpoints at times because they're individual bloggers.

    It's probably best that they don't stick with one outlet though because that damaged Walt's credibility with people and he then in turn attacked Apple more frequently to seem more impartial, including using his 'evolutionary not revolutionary' rhetoric on product releases. Apple already seems to be doing this by issuing press releases and offering contacts to multiple publications. If publications like the Verge, Engadget or whatever put negative spin on Apple too much, they can get cut off like Gizmodo and they'd just give the exclusive news to the people who support Apple.

    Their use of the WSJ could partly have been that it's still a printed publication, which is not so important any more:

    http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/why-the-wall-street-journal-is-cutting-print-sections-and-refocusing-on-its-core-coverage/

    Remember it was only 10 years ago that the iPhone changed how people got news on the go. It looks like somebody has edited WSJ's wikipedia page today:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal
    https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Wall_Street_Journal&diff=774571818&oldid=774571583

    "The Wall Street Journal is fake news, English-language international daily newspaper based in New York City."

    That's why Apple could trust printed publications more.

    They do need to do some interviews at times, Jony Ive has used Variety for the fashion crowd. Gruber is ok making interviews for the tech crowd. The All Things D interviews were pretty good but Kara Swisher was bad, she was making jabs at Tim Cook when he was there. Walt just let the people talk without trying to annoy them.
  • Reply 16 of 18
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,945member
    Will not miss his gross goatee. 
  • Reply 17 of 18
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,299member
    Well Apple should make sure they have some impressive exclusive for him to cover as his final piece.

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