The Verge founding member Chris Ziegler worked at Apple for two months before leaving website
In a strange case of tech journalism intrigue, former deputy editor and founding member of The Verge Chris Ziegler recently left the publication after it was discovered that he was -- and might still be -- moonlighting at Apple, a potential conflict of interest for both companies.
In response to recent inquiries into Ziegler's apparent absence from the website, The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel revealed the circumstances surrounding his departure in a note to readers on Friday.
According to Patel, Ziegler took an unspecified job at Apple in July without informing his higher-ups at The Verge. The now former deputy editor remained active at the website through July -- his most recent post covered a self-driving car partnership between BMW and Intel -- but dropped out of contact sometime in August.
The Verge confirmed Ziegler's position at Apple in early September, and terminated his employment at parent company Vox Media on that same day, Patel said.
A subsequent review conducted by Vox Media Editorial Director Lockhart Steele investigated whether Ziegler's affiliation with Apple impacted content direction at The Verge. The investigation, which wrapped up this week, involved staff interviews and reviews of email correspondence, Slack logs and login histories. Steele ultimately found no evidence that Ziegler's dual-employment swayed the editorial decision making process.
"Chris did not attempt to steer any coverage towards or away from Apple, and any particular decisions he helped make had the same outcomes they would have had absent his involvement," Patel said.
As for what Ziegler did -- or is doing -- at Apple remains unclear. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Daring Fireball's John Gruber says Ziegler's name is not listed in Apple's current employee directory, suggesting he no longer works at the company or was hired under a different name.
In response to recent inquiries into Ziegler's apparent absence from the website, The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel revealed the circumstances surrounding his departure in a note to readers on Friday.
According to Patel, Ziegler took an unspecified job at Apple in July without informing his higher-ups at The Verge. The now former deputy editor remained active at the website through July -- his most recent post covered a self-driving car partnership between BMW and Intel -- but dropped out of contact sometime in August.
The Verge confirmed Ziegler's position at Apple in early September, and terminated his employment at parent company Vox Media on that same day, Patel said.
A subsequent review conducted by Vox Media Editorial Director Lockhart Steele investigated whether Ziegler's affiliation with Apple impacted content direction at The Verge. The investigation, which wrapped up this week, involved staff interviews and reviews of email correspondence, Slack logs and login histories. Steele ultimately found no evidence that Ziegler's dual-employment swayed the editorial decision making process.
"Chris did not attempt to steer any coverage towards or away from Apple, and any particular decisions he helped make had the same outcomes they would have had absent his involvement," Patel said.
As for what Ziegler did -- or is doing -- at Apple remains unclear. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Daring Fireball's John Gruber says Ziegler's name is not listed in Apple's current employee directory, suggesting he no longer works at the company or was hired under a different name.
Comments
LOL! Thanks for the "full disclosure" of the stuff that really goes on there, buddy! Anyone else notice how many of their top staff has left or been "fired" since Nilay Patel took over? They've had very high turnover.
What a disgusting site. It's been years since I even bothered to visit. It's a social commentary site masquerading as a tech site.
Give me a fucking break. Sorry, but you're not The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. You're the tech equivalent of a tabloid.
unlike Patel, i have no reason to distrust Ziegler. Patel is a blatantly biased editor with an impartial agenda.
Walt Mossberg had the audacity to christen the Note 7 being more innovative than iPhone 7 even with an exploding battery, a single sense camera, slower application processor than iPhone 6S (not a typo), a year-old operating system. The reason he crowned Note 7 is because it had a curved display. That's it... a curved display. Screw everything else.
Another writer crowed about the Note 7's battery and gave it a 9 rating. He has chosen to not update the rating after the explosions and recalls. And now with people in South Korea reporting the Note 7 replacement has... exploding batteries, I doubt The Verge will update the rating to reflect the true performance of the battery.
The headphone jack shit storm was so far over the top a lot of people wondered who was paying The Verge to be so hateful towards Apple about removing the headphone jack while ignoring the very real facts that Apple wasn't the first company to do it. With Samsung soon to follow Apple (who was not first), what will The Verge write?
And now with the battery screwing up the message The Verge was trying to craft for Note 7 against iPhones 7/Plus, The Verge is stuck trying to figure out how to beat up the iPhone while praising Note 7. It seems every day that comes and goes, Samsung makes it difficult for The Verge to write something positive about the Note 7 while writing something negative about iPhones 7/Plus. At this point, the more negative The Verge is towards Apple in favor of anything Samsung, makes the publication more unworthy of being trusted.
I am looking forward to reading the positive articles Walt Mossberg has for anything Apple in the future. His condemnation of iPhons 7/Plus will show anything positive he writes is a lie. He has been bought by The Verge/Vox Media and must do the bidding of his new overlords. It is too bad because I actually did like the guy. Now he is just sagging skin trying to remain relevant by bashing Apple and promoting Apple's competitors who are f*cking up at everything he praises them for. The more the f*ck up the more his praises show something is going on behind the scenes the public will be made aware of in a memoir.
I remember when everyone was so eager to praise the first Microsoft Surface Book, all giving it great and glowing reviews.
Soon after they landed on customers hands, complaits went through the roof as just about everything on the thing was screwed up. Customers who were suckered by the reviews ended up with bricked pos machines.
Joana Stern from the Wall Street journal was on a podcast at the time admitting that she called her buddies from The Verge to see what they though as they were both writing their glowing reviews in their eco chamber. Only to see the first Surface Book turn out to be a huge POS.
Same thing happened with the Note 7, they were all on board, they were all going to praise it and shit on Apples headphone 3.5 jack.
Sadly their narrative literally blew up in their face as the gadget they all recomened like the Surface before it was another flawed pos. They pang to to be first with the click bait reviews however half ass, then pretend they are objective.
And about the 3.5 headphone jack that was the beginning of the apocalypse acording to the echo chamber, well the iPhone 7 is still back ordered till god knows when.
The Verge or all these cheesy bloggers have lost so much credibility that their reviews matter squat.
The fourth estate have come to believe they are players, rather than observers. They form a club, divergent opinion is cast out, and anything that does not align with the club's rules and views is either pilloried, or more effectively, turfed in the forgettery and not reported.