Apple Hires Former WSJ Reporter as Public Relations Director in China

[MacRumors]

Apple has hired a former reporter and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Wei Gu, to its public relations department in Shanghai, China. Gu's role, per LinkedIn (via TechCrunch) will be PR Director, which she began this month.

Gu's professional history spans 18 years and includes jobs at CNN and Reuters, working as a video journalist and reporter to break news regarding technology companies based out of the United States.

She left The Wall Street Journal in August -- where her work included a focus on a weekly finance column -- and had since been writing and editing a personal blog before joining Apple this month.

As Apple continues to boost its presence in China, it makes sense for the company to begin expanding and improving its talent pool in regards to China-based public relations. Just this year, Apple faced issues with Chinese regulators regarding a controversial independent movie which led to the shut down of iTunes and iBooks in the country.

Although China has lost ground to Europe and is now Apple's third most profitable market, the company continues to expand its influence within the country, with CEO Tim Cook remaining steadily "optimistic" about Apple's presence in China, recently saying that "China is not as weak as has been talked about."

Article Link: Apple Hires Former WSJ Reporter as Public Relations Director in China

 

[M2M]

Fire the automation technical guy. Hire a PR person...... not much to say.

 

[imran5720]

Shengai calling

 

[Cineplex]

A reporter as a PR director.....that's right because Apple needs to spin its products and create lies about how awesome they are...I get it now.

 

[Gorms]

A reporter as a PR director.....that's right because Apple needs to spin its products and create lies about how awesome they are...I get it now.

You clearly don't.

Who do you think PR send press releases to? They have hired someone with knowledge of how journalists work, and who will have considerable contacts as well as someone who - and I'm taking a punt here - can probably straddle that pretty tricky English/Chinese language gap. Seems like a smart hire to me.

 

[Abazigal]

You clearly don't.

Who do you think PR send press releases to? They have hired someone with knowledge of how journalists work, and who will have considerable contacts as well as someone who - and I'm taking a punt here - can probably straddle that pretty tricky English/Chinese language gap. Seems like a smart hire to me.

Finally. A voice of reason amongst a maelstrom of BS.

 

[Cineplex]

You clearly don't.

Who do you think PR send press releases to? They have hired someone with knowledge of how journalists work, and who will have considerable contacts as well as someone who - and I'm taking a punt here - can probably straddle that pretty tricky English/Chinese language gap. Seems like a smart hire to me.

LOL. Yes because Apple press releases are so critical to life we need a dedicated global task force to solve the problem. They release so many of them...hundreds a day. This hire has NOTHING to do with press releases FYI. This is all about bribing government officials, having an Apple presence at big events with the rich and powerful, and trying to continue to con the people into these crap products they now make. NOT press releases.

 

[lincolntran]

LOL. Yes because Apple press releases are so critical to life we need a dedicated global task force to solve the problem. They release so many of them...hundreds a day. This hire has NOTHING to do with press releases FYI. This is all about bribing government officials, having an Apple presence at big events with the rich and powerful, and trying to continue to con the people into these crap products they now make. NOT press releases.

As a person who runs his own company, I can tell you PR involves many things beside press release. The better relationship you have with your customers, the better your products can get.

 

[Kaibelf]

Finally. A voice of reason amongst a maelstrom of veiled racism/sexism/baseless accusations of corruption.

FTFY
[doublepost=1479503475][/doublepost]

LOL. Yes because Apple press releases are so critical to life we need a dedicated global task force to solve the problem. They release so many of them...hundreds a day. This hire has NOTHING to do with press releases FYI. This is all about bribing government officials, having an Apple presence at big events with the rich and powerful, and trying to continue to con the people into these crap products they now make. NOT press releases.

Look, we're sorry you didn't make it to the second interview. Now give it a rest.

 

[Cineplex]

FTFY
[doublepost=1479503475][/doublepost]

Look, we're sorry you didn't make it to the second interview. Now give it a rest.

Looks like your upset that you didn't even get the call. Can't win them all.

 

[Carlanga]

A reporter as a PR director.....that's right because Apple needs to spin its products and create lies about how awesome they are...I get it now.

nah its more to deal w all the randomgates and issues with new hardware. Beta everything nowadays...
[doublepost=1479527684][/doublepost]

As a person who runs his own company, I can tell you PR involves many things beside press release. The better relationship you have with your customers, the better your products can get.

yeap, unless you have an iconic person like Steve Jobs that people gravitate and want to see you need PR to deal w everything that might and will go wrong.

 

[nhannomad]

I think people get it backward, no amount of good press you can throw at, bad products won't save it.

 

[djgamble]

A reporter as a PR director.....that's right because Apple needs to spin its products and create lies about how awesome they are...I get it now.

So massive companies aren't allowed to have PR and all PR is BS?

Sure there's clearly gonna be some spin in PR, but like... selling stuff isn't wrong in itself man!

 

[Cineplex]

So massive companies aren't allowed to have PR and all PR is BS?

Sure there's clearly gonna be some spin in PR, but like... selling stuff isn't wrong in itself man!

It's like you didn't read the comment and then put your own PR spin on it. Lol

 

[sudo1996]

A reporter as a PR director.....that's right because Apple needs to spin its products and create lies about how awesome they are...I get it now.

Who would you rather they hire for PR in China, some engineer? This person was a tech reporter. China is known to be hostile towards outside companies, so even the most honest company needs skilled PR there. And anyway, the PR person does more than PR.

 

[Brandhouse]

Why the vitriol and hate about Wei? Either you are trolling, are sexist, racist or something else. Some of you need to take a look at yourselves and ask if that's the way you treat people, is that the way you want to be treated in return?

 

[sudo1996]

Why the vitriol and hate about Wei? Either you are trolling, are sexist, racist or something else. Some of you need to take a look at yourselves and ask if that's the way you treat people, is that the way you want to be treated in return?

There's no need to pull that card here. People just hate Apple.

 

[djgamble]

It's like you didn't read the comment and then put your own PR spin on it. Lol

I read a vague complaint that all PR is spin and that hiring PR people means they must be trying to sell rubbish products. Then I was like huuuuh? All significant companies have PR... this isn't inherently a bad thing.

 

[Cineplex]

I read a vague complaint that all PR is spin and that hiring PR people means they must be trying to sell rubbish products. Then I was like huuuuh? All significant companies have PR... this isn't inherently a bad thing.

No see, you misunderstood. I said APPLE PR is to spin bad rubbish they make...not PR in general. Apple PR is just spread words like "magical" and "cheap foreign labor"....I mean "world class manufacturing". PR in general is not a bad thing.