Wired (magazine)

Wired
The logo for "Wired". The text "Wired" is seen on a black and white checkered pattern, with the color alternating for each letter. Each letter is colored in the inverse to its background color.
Global Editorial DirectorKatie Drummond
Former US editors-in-chiefLouis Rossetto, Katrina Heron, Chris Anderson, Nick Thompson, Gideon Lichfield
CategoriesBusiness, technology, lifestyle, thought leader
FrequencyMonthly
Total circulation
(December 2023)
541,614[1]
FounderLouis Rossetto, Jane Metcalfe
FoundedFebruary 1991
First issueJanuary 1993, as a quarterly
CompanyCondé Nast Publications
CountryUnited States
Based inSan Francisco, California
LanguageEnglish
Websitewired.com Edit this at Wikidata
ISSN1059-1028 (print)
1078-3148 (web)
OCLC24479723

Wired (stylized in all caps) is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, its editorial offices are in San Francisco, California, and its business office at Condé Nast headquarters in Liberty Tower in New York City. Wired has been in publication since its launch in January 1993.[2] Several spin-offs have followed, including Wired UK, Wired Italia, Wired Japan, Wired Czech Republic and Slovakia[3] and Wired Germany.

From its beginning, the strongest influence on the magazine's editorial outlook came from founding editor and publisher Louis Rossetto. In 1991, Rossetto and founding creative director John Plunkett[4] created a 12-page "Manifesto for a New Magazine",[5] nearly all of whose ideas were realized in the magazine's first several issues.[6] During the five years of Rossetto’s editorship, Wired's colophon credited Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan as its "patron saint". Wired went on to chronicle the evolution of digital technology and its impact on society.

Wired quickly became recognized as the voice of the emerging digital economy and culture[7] and a pace setter in print design and web design.[8][9] During its explosive growth in the mid-1990s, it articulated the values of a far-reaching "digital revolution" driven by the people creating and using digital technology and networks. It won the National Magazine Awards for General Excellence in its first year of publication, and others subsequently for both editorial and design.[10][11] Adweek acknowledged Wired as its Magazine of the Decade in 2009.[12] SF Gate called Wired "the magazine that led the digital revolution".[13]

From 1998 to 2006, Wired magazine and Wired News, which publishes at Wired.com, had separate owners. However, Wired News remained responsible for republishing Wired magazine's content online due to an agreement when Condé Nast purchased the magazine. In 2006, Condé Nast bought Wired News for $25 million, reuniting the magazine with its website.

Wired’s second editor Katrina Heron[14] published Bill Joy's "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us", breaking with Wired's optimism to present a dystopian view of the technological future.

Wired's third editor, Chris Anderson is known for popularizing the term "the long tail",[15] as a phrase relating to a "power law"-type graph that helps to visualize the 2000s emergent new media business model. Anderson's article for Wired on this paradigm related to research on power law distribution models carried out by Clay Shirky, specifically in relation to bloggers. Anderson widened the definition of the term in capitals to describe a specific point of view relating to what he sees as an overlooked aspect of the traditional market space that has been opened up by new media.[16]

The magazine coined the term crowdsourcing,[17] as well as its annual tradition of handing out Vaporware Awards, which recognize "products, videogames, and other nerdy tidbits pitched, promised and hyped, but never delivered".[18] In these same years, the magazine also published the story, written by Joshuah Bearman, that became the movie Argo. In more recent times, the publication became known for its deep investigative reporting, including a long story about Facebook—"Inside the Two Years that Shook Facebook and the World"—that became the publication's most read article of the modern era. It was written by Fred Vogelstein and Nicholas Thompson, the latter of whom was the publication's editor-in-chief and had also been the editor on the piece that became Argo.

  1. ^ "Alliance for Audited Media". Wired. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  2. ^ French, Alex. "The Very First Issues of 19 Famous Magazines". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on August 10, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  3. ^ "To nejlepší ze světa technologií". WIRED CZ (in Czech). Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  4. ^ "Eye Magazine | Feature | Reputations: John Plunkett". Eye Magazine. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  5. ^ Greenwald, Ted (2013). "Step Behind the Scenes of the Frantic, Madcap Birth of Wired: An Oral History of Wired 01.01". Wired. Archived from the original on October 30, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  6. ^ "Wired Prototype". Plunkett+Kuhr. October 6, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  7. ^ Keegan, Paul (1995). "The Digerati!". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on October 30, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  8. ^ "SFMOMA | Exhibitions | Wired Magazine". Archived from the original on October 27, 2004. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  9. ^ Veen, Jeff (2006). "Looking Back at Hotwired". Veen.com.
  10. ^ "Wired : Impressive Industry Recognition" (PDF). Mercury-publicity.de. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  11. ^ "Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Wired, WSJ are finalists in National Magazine Awards". Talkingbiznews.com. February 24, 2022. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  12. ^ "Adweek says Wired is "Magazine of the Decade"". Poynter.org. December 14, 2009. Archived from the original on October 30, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  13. ^ Fost, Dan (June 7, 1999). "ReWired / Under Conde Nast, magazine has boosted its fortune by focusing on "new economy"". SFGate. ISSN 1932-8672. Archived from the original on May 2, 2024. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  14. ^ Bing, Jonathan (March 13, 2001). "Inside Move: Wired eyes successors as Heron unplugs". Variety. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  15. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (July 14, 2008). "Long Tails and Big Heads". Slate. Archived from the original on August 2, 2011. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
  16. ^ Anderson, Chris (May 8, 2005). "The Long Tail". Wired. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  17. ^ Whitford, David (March 22, 2007). "Hired Guns on the Cheap". Fortune Small Business. CNN. Archived from the original on October 30, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2007.
  18. ^ Calore, Michael (March 11, 2011). "Vaporware 2010: The Great White Duke". Wired.