T3 (magazine)

''T3'' magazine is a UK-based technology magazine, which specialises in gadgets, gizmos, and other technology.

Originally, T3 stood for Tomorrow's Technology Today, but this is not used anywhere in the magazine or on the website anymore except for on the side of the magazine . It is exclusively referred to as ''T3'' or T3.com. The magazine is popular but in terms of sales is ranked second among UK gadget magazines. T3 magazine is available in most countries, and has syndicated/localised versions in over 20 countries.

History

The first issue of T3 magazine went on sale around September 1996. The magazine was a spin-off of a science magazine eventually launched as Frontiers, but the publishers decided to have a look at future technology. The reasoning was that there wasn't really an all-round consumer technology magazine in the UK market and that people love reading about technology and gadgets.

The magazine started off as a celebration of the best new technologies that were appearing, to explain how it all works, and how the technologies and products would impact the readers' lives, but evolved into a glossy entertainment magazine as well. Many of the readers started buying the magazine specifically to read about items that were outrageously expensive and outlandish, and the magazine was quickly seen as a 'licence to drool' over bleeding-edge technology. The first issue of the magazine featured the first DVD player to be imported into the UK.

Things started to become digital around 1996 - DECT telephones, digital cameras, PDAs, and later DVD and digital television technology. With most technology going digital and dropping in price, general interest for gadgets rose, as did sales of the magazine.

Ultimately, the magazine started moving away from pure technology coverage, and started writing about anything innovative. As the editor at the time said: "A slightly bigger TV, for example, wouldn't go in the magazine unless it was really sexy or had clever features". Around the same time, the magazine became less geeky in its approach to technology, and became much more of a magazine for design-conscious gadget-loving men. However, the addition of attractive models has drawn some limited suggestion that the publication still relies on a core readership of "sexually repressed nerds".

The first editor of T3 magazine was Steve Jarratt, who also launched Edge. He was followed by Paul Pettengale, Rob Mead, Mark Higham, James Beechinor-Collins, Michael Brook, Luke Peters, Matt Hill, Tom Dennis, Rob Carney and Matt Bolton. The current editor is Josh Russell.

Syndication

T3 is a franchise with has local versions in a whole series of countries. The localised versions vary from country to country: Some editions are completely new magazines, created by a local team of journalists and designers under the T3 brand. Other syndications are adaptations of the UK version for a local market, or region (the T3 Middle East franchise, for instance): In some countries or markets, for example, the Bikini model#Bikini models, T3 cover girls are unacceptable, so they might be replaced with a more family-friendly or religion-friendly version. In other markets, the covers are re-shot with local models. Most syndicated versions of T3 magazine are a hybrid of both T3 UK content (both editorial and pictorial), and content geared towards local markets, with reviews of companies, services, and items relevant especially to the national market.

Per October 2009, syndicated editions included Australia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dubai, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.

Apart from separate magazines, T3's stories often appear in major newspapers, and the T3 staff are frequently featured on Radio and Television as industry experts. Articles are also syndicated in the technology section of the Telefónica O2, O2 Active portal.

T3 Website

The T3 web site (T3.com) started off as a running advertisement for the magazine, but that has changed quite radically over time. The web site now has a number of staff members separate from T3 magazine, and it operates as a publication in its own right. T3.com now creates a lot of reviews exclusively for the web site, in addition to staying on top of gadget and technology stories as they happen. The current Editor-in-Chief for T3.com is Mat Gallagher, with section editors Duncan Bell, Spencer Hart and Mike Lowe.

Due to its links with the T3 brand and close ties with the industry it covers, the T3 web site frequently Breaking news, breaks news stories before any other outlets. It relaunched in December 2007 as t3.com.

The T3 Podcast was an audio podcast published weekly on Fridays via T3.com and iTunes. It was hosted for most of its near seven-year run by presenter Dan Maudsley with T3 Operations Editor, Duncan Bell, and T3.com's Rhi Morgan. It ran for 299 episodes from 6 December 2007, although the first seven episodes had a different format and presenting team. The 200th episode was recorded in front of an audience of fans and broadcast live via Mixlr from the Hospital Club, London on 16 September 2011. Dan left the podcast in March 2013 with Duncan taking over as main host. Dan's final show was episode 277. Episodes became irregular from the end of July 2013. After a gap of more than seven weeks, the final episode was published on 18 November 2013 with Dan returning for a cameo appearance in which he called it the final episode, "for now".

See also

*''Stuff (magazine), Stuff'' - T3's biggest magazine competitor in the UK
*Engadget - Large gadget blog
*Gizmodo - Large gadget blog
*The Gadget Show - popular weekly TV show

References

External links

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''T3'' Middle East

{{Authority control

1996 establishments in the United Kingdom
Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Science and technology magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1996