Amaya Toman For large companies like Apple, public speaking and communication is one of the core issues. In Cupertino, Katie Cotton was in charge of this area until 2014, who was described as the "PR guru of the company". She worked in this position for eighteen years, but at the beginning of May 2014 she said goodbye to Apple. Katie Cotton worked closely with Steve Jobs, and although she left the company only a few years after his death, her departure was for many one of the symbols of the definitive end of the Jobs era.
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Although the name Katie Cotton may not mean anything to many people, her collaboration with Jobs was as significant as collaboration with Jon Ive, Tim Cook or other more media-known personalities of Apple. Katie Cotton's role played an important role in how Apple presented itself to the media and the public, as well as how the world perceived the Cupertino company.
Before joining Apple, Katie Cotton worked at a PR agency called KillerApp Communications and was already connected to Jobs in a way - the company she worked for at the time was in charge of NeXT's PR affairs. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the second half of the nineties, Katie Cotton used her contacts at the time and started applying for a position in Cupertino. Apple has always approached its PR a little differently than most other companies, and Katie Cotton's work here has been very unconventional in many ways. It was also very important for her role that she agreed with Jobs in most attitudes.
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Among other things, Katie Cotton famously said that "she's not here to make friends with reporters, but to highlight and sell Apple products" and she also made a mark in the consciousness of a number of journalists with her protective attitude towards Jobs at a time when the world was intensively dealing with his health condition. When she decided to retire after eighteen years at Apple, company spokesman Steve Dowling said: "Katie gave absolutely everything to the company for eighteen years. Now she wants to spend more time with her children. We will truly miss him.” Her departure from the company is considered by many to be the beginning of a new - "kinder and gentler" - era of Apple's PR.
