
The Verge editor secretly joins Apple, doesn't inform the Verge - jason_slack
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/09/23/ziegler-verge-apple
======
whizzkid
There is something fishy in this whole story.

\- You wouldn't risk your new position by not quitting your old one.

\- Apple would not want you to keep your old job since they want your focus on
your new position.

\- Getting double salaries is not worth the paperwork headache of tricking the
system.

The only reason I can think of is, he would get some sort of extra pay from
his old job if he would fulfil a time written on his old contract.

~~~
mortenjorck
Ziegler was, among other things, the automotive editor of The Verge, and is,
by any measure, a car enthusiast. What follows is my wild speculation:

Given his experience in both tech media and automotive media, perhaps he was
hired at Apple as part of the team whose responsibility it will be to
construct the messaging and narrative around the unveiling of Apple's car
program. As part of the secrecy around the project, he might well have been
hired by one of Apple's automotive shell companies [1], thus his name not
appearing in the Apple intranet.

As for his employment overlap, that sounds more like a mishandled quiet
departure than anything else – Apple HR would certainly have instructed him to
keep his transition low-profile, and maybe he simply screwed it up.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/alleged-apple-front-
company-a...](http://www.businessinsider.com/alleged-apple-front-company-
attends-car-industry-conference-sixty-eight-global-car-body-
benchmarking-2015-11)

~~~
RickS
In the midst of a lot of speculation and a bizarre situation, this is the
sanest explanation so far.

------
danso
It's not uncommon for journalists to jump ship and work for the people they've
covered. Numerous former newspaper colleagues of mine work as public
information officers for the school districts and agencies they used to cover.
This happens all the way up to the White House level. Questions of biased
coverage in the months leading up to the switch are often justified and asked.

But I've never heard of this kind of double-dipping. Other than the brief
extra paycheck, this is all massive downside, particularly in media becomes
the grist for another news cycle. The fact that he's also just gone silent on
Twitter makes me think there is some other problem here.

------
applecore
The most hilarious aspect of this story is it took nearly two months before
anyone noticed he was gone.

~~~
JshWright
From the sounds of things, it was roughly a month ("[he] was not in contact
with us through most of August and into September.").

That's probably not super crazy for a reasonably senior writer working on
"longish" form stuff. While a month is probably a long time, I wouldn't be
surprised if a week or two usually passed without touching base. It might take
a couple of those "week or two" cycles to notice someone hasn't checked in.

The article also says it wasn't unnoticed, and that they tried to reach him
several times in that period.

~~~
mikeash
Yes, it sounds to me like they noticed almost immediately, and just didn't
figure out what was going on until a couple of months later because he didn't
tell them what was going on.

------
086421357909764
How do we know he wasn't working at an Apple Store rather than Corporate?
Apparently he wasn't in the corporate directory.

~~~
misnome
This was downvoted, but I recall it supposedly being an explicit condition of
employment that you don't tell anyone that you are going to be an apple store
employee?

~~~
pmiller2
Even if true, this doesn't account for not mentioning that he was leaving his
job at The Verge.

------
excalibur
Here's hoping somebody locates him, interviews him, and reports back with the
full story.

------
bsimpson
Why is Gruber's link to a Verge article the one attached to this discussion?
Why not the Verge directly?

~~~
kylec
The link was already posted a few days ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12567848](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12567848)

------
espadrine
Getting a job is sometimes a way to write an in-depth article, as with this
article: [http://uk.businessinsider.com/i-drove-for-uber-for-a-week-
he...](http://uk.businessinsider.com/i-drove-for-uber-for-a-week-heres-what-
its-really-like-2015-2).

However, it looks like nobody was able to reach him, which might mean he had
an accident.

Regardless, keeping coworkers in the dark is bad form, even if Apple was
pressuring him to do so (which might not have been the case at all).

------
asendra
Ziegler is not just any editor though. There has to be more to the story.

~~~
jason_slack
There is a bit more here: [http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/09/23/the-
verge-founding...](http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/09/23/the-verge-
founding-member-chris-ziegler-worked-at-apple-for-two-months-before-leaving-
website)

but it doesn't really fill in all the gaps. Like where he is now, if he still
works there, etc.

------
applecrazy
Couldn't he also get his employment terminated at Apple? Because I'm pretty
sure any company wouldn't let you work with the media whilst working with them
under a standard NDA.

------
zeropointmodule
Maybe he suffered a health issue after taking the Apple job but before
officially quitting at The Verge.

------
mikeryan
Its funny with the rise of more remote work with flexible hours I wonder if
there's not more then one person who's double dipping.

I imagine a pretty good engineer could maybe work two full time jobs pretty
easily remotely working 4-5 hours per day on each gig.

~~~
vemv
There's not much incentive to not do that simply as a freelancer instead, and
being open about the having multiple clients.

3hours each and you could be totally productive (and not burnout)

~~~
pinaceae
well, but freelancers pay their own healthcare, 401k, etc.

if you're running two well-paying full employments with all benefits, you have
a sweet gig going.

only possible in the US due to the setup of healthcare and overall taxes, etc.

~~~
15thandwhatever
US insurance carriers generally ask you to certify that you did _not_ have
insurance through another carrier/policy simultaneously (upon submission of a
claim), as policies tend to have 100% coverage kick in on things like annual
and lifetime maximum numbers.

Double-dipping on insurance policies messes with their actuarial table
calculations.

~~~
sidlls
That sort of certification is a practice that should be made illegal. I've
just been bit by that when we transitioned my family from one earner's plan to
the other. It created a pointless hastle for us and our care team. Insurers
don't need to know if I have coverage through another insurer.

------
Overtonwindow
A more burning question is if this guy took a job at Apple, did he get so
frustrated by Verge, or was so thrilled by the job at Apple, that he simply
walked out and never looked back? That's one way to certainly burn a bridge.

------
jordache
earth shattering news? Something something about a flavor of the month tech
blog.

------
guelo
I wonder how many other plants Apple has in the media.

------
mankash666
Really? This is the kind of valleywag B.S. trending on HN? Why should
developers care where zeigler works, or double works.

