The Price of Crossing Steve Jobs

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Gordon McLeod has been packing up his office; today is his last at the Wall Street Journal. His ejection is complicated. But some coworkers think they know what did him in: insulting Steve Jobs in Rupert Murdoch's presence.

McLeod's exchange with Jobs, the fiercely willful Apple CEO, came one night this past June, at Murdoch's ranch in Carmel, California. An annual News Corp. retreat was under way and the theme, at least for the evening in question, was apps of the sort that run on Jobs' iPhone and iPad.
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News Corp. chairman Murdoch, an old school media mogul with, by all accounts, a huge admiration for Jobs and, in particular his iPad. Where Murdoch's digital nemesis Google specializes in indexing and aggregating free content and in offering free services, Jobs has built a brisk business selling old fashioned content for consumption on newfangled devices. Murdoch has called Jobs the best CEO in America.

http://gawker.com/5652305/the-price-of-crossing-steve-jobs?skyline=true&s=i

:popcorn:

The popular image is that Apple and Jobs are "different" and are for the "little guy". Even a cursory reading of Apple history will show them to be as "corporate" and cut-throat as any big business in history. It is not a democracy at Apple; it's not even a benign dictatorship. I'll give it to Mr. Jobs for the remarkable turnaround of Apple after his return, but it says a lot that Mordred thinks of Steve-O as the finest CEO in America.

"Flame-proof suit, activate!"
(about the only flame-war more intense than Democrat-vs-Republican is Apple-vs-Microsoft et al!;)

Good find!

My buddy told me all about Jobs when he worked at Apple, said he was the biggest asshole he ever met.

'It's widely agreed within the company that McLeod was not pushed out simply because of a conversation with Steve Jobs. There were other reasons the four year veteran didn't seem like the best fit for the company, which is trying to rapidly evolve its digital offerings. By some accounts, the Journal and News Corp. high command was already on the fence about whether they needed him prior to the Carmel retreat. There is a contingent who believe the Jobs encounter may have tipped the scales against him. And that perception alone testifies to the long shadow cast by America's most famous CEO — a shadow to be feared even in a different company, in a different industry, run by a CEO of very different generation, on a different side of the country thousands of miles away. Steve Jobs is the prototypical media mogul of the 21st Century, and you'd best not forget it.'

Jobs. Did he go over the line? We don't know. Did McLeod get his feelings hurt when Jobs said their App was clunky? Did he lash out at Jobs because of the criticism?

First rule: don't piss off advertisers

Second rule: Don't piss off advertiser your boss likes.

Third rule: Remember the first two.



It's never good to challenge Steve Jobs. You better have your facts straight before opening your mouth.

the WSJ digital product is for shit. That douchbag was doing a crappy job and he get turned out. Obviously, he became pissy about it but that was just his swan song.

lesson: When you go to your bosses house, don't shit on his most important guest even if you think he wrong.