Longtime Tech Journalist Anand Shimpi Heads to Apple

Apple (AAPL) has hired veteran journalist Anand Lal Shimpi, editor and publisher of the chips and hardware review-oriented website AnandTech, who confirmed he’s leaving the website he founded in 1997 but didn’t say exactly what he’ll be doing.

Re/code reported that an Apple spokesperson confirmed Shimpi’s hire but declined to offer any further details.

When journalists join a company they typically cover or follow, invariably it’s in some communications or research capacity, which may or may not be true in Shimpi’s case. With the departure of longtime Apple PR chief Katie Cotton, the vendor is said to be ready to take on a friendlier pose with the media and perhaps Shimpi is lined up to contribute to that effort.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook reportedly is overseeing Cotton’s replacement. He is said to be looking to bring in a “big name” from outside the company, perhaps bypassing qualified inside candidates Steve Dowling and Nat Kerris, reasoning that a fresh face will help deliver a more approachable tone to the vendor’s press relations. In contrast to its rivals, Apple’s not known for pushing information out to the media.

Shimpi, who kicked off AnandTech when he was 14 years old, wrote in a blog post that “after 17.5 years of digging, testing, analyzing and writing about the most interesting stuff in tech, it’s time for a change,” and he is “officially retiring from the tech publishing world.”

While age 32 is a bit young to be throwing around the “retirement” word, perhaps Shimpi meant he’s merely switching gears. He didn’t say, however, what’s next on his dance card. “I won’t stay idle forever,” Shimpi wrote. “There are a bunch of challenges out there :).”

Despite Shimpi’s departure, AnandTech isn’t going anywhere. It will be run by Ryan Smith, the site’s new editor in chief, who’s worked with Shimpi for 10 years.

“I am fully confident in Ryan’s ability to carry the torch and pick up where I left off,” Shimpi wrote. “We’ve grown the staff over the course of this year in anticipation of the move. With a bunch of new faces around AnandTech, all eager to uphold the high standards and unique approach to covering tech, I firmly believe the site can continue to thrive for years to come.”

The AnandTech site launched as a motherboard reviewer but over time expanded to include reviews of CPUs, video cards, cases, notebooks, Macs, smartphones, tablets “and anything else that mattered,” Shimpi wrote.