 After quitting his job he was asked to write a book about Tore Tønne, and his recent suicide. When writing the book Hippe interviewed 60 key acquaintances, with the exception of Kjell Inge Røkke who had a friendly relationship with Tønne before his death. The book, entitled Mektig og avmektig: Tore Tønne, media og maktspillet bak kulissene (English: Powerful and Powerless: Tore Tønne, Media and the Power Play Behind the Scenes), was published in 2003 and received considerable acclaim. Before becoming a political consultant he was one of four who applied for the position as director of the Institute for Journalism in 2006. He was not chosen and instead became a consultant for the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, Gerd-Liv Valla. In 2006 he worked alongside Erik Solheim and Jonas Gahr Støre on the "Norwegian Project", a government-funded project with Brazil. According to Hippe the project works for an extensive social dialogue between the employers where they "deliberately chose cooperation and dialogue rather than confrontation and conflict with society around them". As of 2010 he works as a consultant for the public relations company Agendum and Hippe Consult, a company owned by himself. In May 2010 Hippe chaired a debate for the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police on the proposal to introduce data storage directives into Norwegian law. Hippe briefly worked as the consultant to Ellen Kristin Dahl-Pedersen who was set to inherit parts of Ellen Ugland's fortune.
