Apple bolsters UK News team with hire of Wired.co.uk editor Michael Rundle

However, it’s not yet clear which position he will take up, but The Drum understands that Rundle is one of the first new hires to join Apple News in the UK and that he is braced to be tech editor working from Apple’s London HQ.

The Apple News app launched in the UK in October 2015 under the philosophy that content from its partners, including the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Guardian, would be served to users based on their tastes and reading behaviours. Although, in December Apple shifted its strategy and gave the service more of a human face by announcing that its team of editors would curate a list of ‘top stories’ for readers several times a day.

Apple started recruiting for journalists and editors when the app first debuted, hinting that reporters would have their own beats and be expected to feed news to the app's audience based on trending topics. It said at the time that it was looking for candidates with “a strong understanding of the technology behind digital news.”

Rundle started his career at the BBC, he has worked with a variety of national titles including Metro and the Huffington Post, where he was most recently UK tech editor.

He announced his departure on Twitter earlier this month, saying that he was leaving for “something new.” In a review he wrote for Wired around new videogame ‘Division’ on Friday (11 March) he said: “I'm leaving Wired soon, for a different sort of life, and wandering around digital worlds will not be my job for much longer.”

Conde Nast told The Drum that it has yet to hire a replacement for Rundle, and that it's advertised for a digital editor to take his place in order to reflect the growth of channels such as social and podcasting.