Walter S. Mossberg (born March 27 1947) is an American journalist who is the principal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal. His Personal Technology column has appeared every Thursday since 1991. He also writes the Mossberg Solution column each Wednesday (co-authored with his assistant, Katherine Boehret), and the Mossberg's Mailbox column on Thursdays. He appears weekly on CNBC television, and also authors a monthly column called The Mossberg Report in SmartMoney Magazine. In all of these columns, Mossberg reviews consumer technology products and services, and comments on trends in consumer technology.
Mossberg is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers on information technology. In 2004, in a lengthy profile, Wired called him "The Kingmaker", saying "[f]ew reviewers have held so much power to shape an industry's successes and failures." He is also the highest paid journalist at the Journal.
In partnership with his fellow Journal columnist Kara Swisher, Mossberg created, produces and hosts the Journal's annual D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, CA, in which top technology leaders, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, appear on stage without prepared remarks, or slides, and are interviewed by the two columnists.
Mossberg has been a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal since 1970. He is based in the Journal's Washington, D.C., office, where he spent 18 years covering national and international affairs before turning his attention to technology.
He is a native of Warwick, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brandeis University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
