Apple hires former Wall Street Journal editor to help Chinese PR team

Apple has reportedly hired Wei Gu — recently an editor with the Wall Street Journal — as a new director for its Chinese public relations team, operating out of Shanghai.

Wei spent four years as the Journal's wealth and luxury editor in China, TechCrunch noted on Friday. She has 18 years of media experience in all, including over a decade as a Reuters columnist in New York and Hong Kong.

Wei actually left the Journal in August, and was taking freelance communications work before getting signed on by Apple.

It's not uncommon for journalists to migrate into marketing and PR, and indeed Apple has previously recruited people from websites like The Verge, Anandtech, and TechCrunch. In the latter case, writer Darrell Etherington has since returned to his previous job.

After North America, China is Apple's most important market, poised to eventually eclipse others in terms of revenue. The company has had a tougher fight in more recent quarters, though, thanks to the ascendancy of local smartphone makers like Huawei and Oppo.