Re: How do you contribute?

Description: Mossberg doesn't invent new technology; he just writes about it.

Question: How do you contribute?

Transcript: Well my contribution is just to, you know, look at new technology products that come along, pick out what I think are the most interesting ones, and try to tell a fairly large group of readers whether I think they’re worth buying. I don’t want to overinflate it. That’s what I do. The other thing I do is I explain some of these technologies. Some of my columns are not product reviews, but they are explainers about technology. And then I . . . A few times a year, I do columns where I take on broader issues. Like I, you know, attack the . . . what I consider to be the excessive control of the phone . . . the wireless phone companies. And I’ll take them on, and that gets me to kind of be controversial for a few weeks, you know? But that’s my role. I wouldn’t . . . I wouldn’t, you know, inflate it. I’m a . . . I’m a journalist. I’m a reviewer. I have a . . . Thankfully, and I’m grateful for it, I have a large following. And so I just help people sort through the thicket of these technology options that they have. But I don’t invent technology. I don’t create technology. And I don’t, you know, monetize technology. I write about it.

Question: What impact have you had on the technology industry?

Transcript: Well I’m not gonna . . . I’m not gonna buy into the idea that I can make and break people. Obviously The Wall Street Journal is widely read. Our web site . . . I’m now on many different web sites syndicated. I’m running my own with a partner, Kara Swisher, a web site called AllThingsD.com. So obviously because I have a lot of readers, if I say, “This product is really good,” it helps them. If I say, “It’s really bad,” it hurts them. But that’s different than saying you can make and break products. I’m also not gonna say I’m central to the development . . . I’ve never invented anything except a column and a conference. I’ve never invented any tech products. But I think . . . If you’re asking me why have I developed a following and have been able to retain a following, which I do admit I have done, I think it’s because I’ve stayed true to the mission that I proposed 16 years ago. I don’t mean to be goofy about it, but sometimes the simple principles are what works, and I have just been laser focused on a very specific, but large audience, which is non-techies. People who don’t want to be techies. People who have better things to do with their time than tweaking these digital devices. They want them to work. They want to enjoy them. They want to use them. They’re not afraid of them. They’re not new to them. They could be any age. I mean you know, if you’re 16 and you have a lot of time on your hands, you may want to screw around with trying to fix your Windows when it breaks. If you’re the same person and you’re 25, and you still are not afraid of the computer, and you have a lot of technical knowledge, you suddenly find you have a lot less time on your hands to goof around with it. And so it isn’t a question of being dumb, or smart, or intimidated, or not intimidated. It’s a question of you bought the laptop. When you open it up you expect it to come on. You expect it to connect to the Wi-Fi network. You expect it to get you to the web site. You expect it to deal with your e-mail. You expect to be able to play, you know, your favorite game on it. You expect it to be able to do Facebook and MySpace. And at the same time, if you want to or need to, you expect to be able to, you know, write a 50-page paper on it. That’s what they promise you when they sell you the computer. And they don’t promise you that you’re gonna be spending your time dealing with defragging the hard drive and, you know, updating the security program and all that other stuff. And so I have been laser focused on that. The first line of my first column was, “Personal computers are just too hard to use and it’s not your fault.” And I still think that’s true. And I think it’s true for cell phones, which are like personal computers 10 years ago. It’s true for most of these products. So I think that’s why I still have a following. I mean I’m in widely read print, and Web, and broadcast outlets; but I also constantly have adopted that voice and used it.

Recorded on: 9/13/07