Apple cancels iPad meetings with journalists

With its iPad computer due to appear in stores this Saturday, Apple had scheduled in-person iPad briefings with a small group of widely-read journalists, including one from VentureBeat.
But for reasons no one outside Apple has figured out yet, Apple’s PR people have canceled meetings with VentureBeat, Gizmodo and other publications. Some writers are reluctant to talk about it on the record, perhaps for fear of being further distanced from Apple.
Reporter Amit Agarwal, a regular columnist for the Hindustan Times, created a list of ten writers who have published hands-on iPad reviews. Agarwal dubbed the group “Steve Jobs’ new inner circle.”
Here’s a linked list of the ten iPad reviews Agarwal found online.

The Wall Street Journal (Walt Mossberg)
The New York Times (David Pogue)
USA Today (Jefferson Graham & Edward Baig)
Boing Boing (Xeni Jardin)
Omar Wasow
TIME (Stephen Fry)
PC Magazine (Tim Gideon)
ABC News (Neal Karlinsky)
Houston Chronicle (Bob LeVitus & Dwight Silverman)
Chicago Sun Times (Andy Ihnatko)

It’s entirely plausible that, since most of these reviews were very positive, Apple decided not to put more time into shepherding further professional reviews. But people being people, some of those who got bounced are taking it as a personal ostracism by Apple, presuming it’s punishment for some indecipherable offense against Steve Jobs.
As Engadget’s former Apple event blogger and a Wired product reviewer, my advice is not to bother trying to figure out who is thinking what at Apple. The company operates on its own internal logic (think: no Flash support.) In years past, Apple PR people sent me invitations to events when I wrote for Slate, where my editors didn’t care about new Apple products. Yet Apple PR spent years not letting Engadget writers into events, until co-founder Jason Calacanis complained to Jobs, an Engadget reader.
VentureBeat reporters will be at Apple’s flagship San Francisco store before they open the doors on Saturday. Compared to doing an eleventh review of the iPad, it seems like a more valuable piece of reporting to cover the craziness firsthand.
Companies: Apple, Gizmodo