Long-time Apple and consumer technology journalist Walt Mossberg retiring
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."
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
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.
EDIT: Joshua Topolsky was the name I couldn't remember.
break out a couple beers guys.
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
He and his candid reviews will be missed.
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.