Media relations, according to outgoing Apple CEO Steve Jobs

In a 1997 keynote address, Jobs—who issued his letter of resignation on Wednesday—said you have to ‘embrace the press,’ but …

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And what did Jobs, a man whose every move was parsed in the media, think of the reporters covering his business? In his own words, he embraced them.

In a blog post published this morning, strategist Valeria Maltoni unearthed a keynote address that Jobs gave in 1997 in which he revealed his media relations strategy. Prompted by the simple question, “What about the press?” Jobs said:

“The press is going to have a lag time. And the best thing we can do about the press is to embrace them, do the best we can to educate them about the strategy. But we need to keep our eye on the prize.

“And that is turning out some great products, communicating directly with our customers the best we can. Getting the community of people that are going to make this stuff successful like yourselves in the loop, so you know everything and is marching forward, one foot in front of the other.

“The press will take care of itself. It’s like the stock price. The press and the stock price will take care of themselves. By the end of this year, it’s going to look quite different.”

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