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''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and
online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" ...
editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect
culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
, the
economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
, and
politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
. Owned by
Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's m ...
, it is headquartered in
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, and has been in publication since March/April 1993. Several spin-offs have been launched, including ''
Wired UK ''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...
'', ''Wired Italia'', ''Wired Japan'', and ''Wired Germany''. From its beginning, the strongest influence on the magazine's editorial outlook came from founding editor and publisher Louis Rossetto. With founding creative director John Plunkett, Rossetto in 1991 assembled a 12-page prototype, nearly all of whose ideas were realized in the magazine's first several issues. In its earliest colophons, ''Wired'' credited Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan as its "
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
". ''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 culture and a pace setter in print design. It articulated the values of a far-reaching "digital revolution" driven by the instant, cost-free reproduction and global transmission of digital information. It won several National Magazine Awards for both editorial and design. ''Adweek'' acknowledged ''Wired'' as its Magazine of the Decade in 2021. 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'' contributor Chris Anderson is known for popularizing the term "the long tail", 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. The magazine coined the term '' crowdsourcing'', 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".


History

The magazine was founded by American journalist Louis Rossetto and his partner Jane Metcalfe, along with Ian Charles Stewart, in 1993 with initial backing from software entrepreneur Charlie Jackson and
eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...
academic Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab, who was a regular columnist for six years (through 1998), wrote the book '' Being Digital'', and later founded One Laptop per Child. The founding designers were John Plunkett and Barbara Kuhr (Plunkett+Kuhr), beginning with a 1991 prototype and continuing through the first five years of publication, 1993–98. ''Wired'', which touted itself as "the ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' of technology", made its debut at the Macworld conference on January 2, 1993. A great success at its launch, it was lauded for its vision, originality, innovation, and cultural impact. In its first four years, the magazine won two
National Magazine Awards The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...
for General Excellence and one for Design. The founding executive editor of ''Wired'', Kevin Kelly, was an editor of the ''
Whole Earth Catalog The ''Whole Earth Catalog'' (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articl ...
'' and the '' Whole Earth Review'' and brought with him contributing writers from those publications. Six authors of the first ''Wired'' issue (1.1) had written for ''Whole Earth Review'', most notably Bruce Sterling (who was highlighted on the first cover) and Stewart Brand. Other contributors to ''Whole Earth'' appeared in ''Wired'', including William Gibson, who was featured on ''Wired''s cover in its first year. ''Wired'' cofounder Louis Rossetto claimed in the magazine's first issue that "the Digital Revolution is whipping through our lives like a Bengali typhoon," yet despite the fact that Kelly was involved in launching
the WELL The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...
, an early source of public access to the Internet and even earlier non-Internet online experience, ''Wired''s first issue de-emphasized the Internet and covered interactive games, cell-phone hacking, digital special effects, military simulations, and Japanese otaku. However, the first issue did contain a few references to the Internet, including online dating and Internet sex, and a tutorial on how to install a bozo filter. The last page, a column written by Nicholas Negroponte, was written in the style of an email message but contained obviously fake, non-standard email addresses. By the third issue in the fall of 1993, the "Net Surf" column began listing interesting FTP sites, Usenet newsgroups, and email addresses, at a time when the numbers of these things were small and this information was still extremely novel to the public. ''Wired'' was among the first magazines to list the email address of its authors and contributors. Associate publisher Kathleen Lyman (formerly of News Corporation and Ziff Davis) was brought on board to launch ''Wired'' with an advertising base of major technology and consumer advertisers. Lyman, along with Simon Ferguson (''Wired''s first advertising manager), introduced revolutionary ad campaigns by a diverse group of industry leaderssuch as Apple Computer,
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...
,
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, an ...
, and
Absolut Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, in southern Sweden. Absolut is a part of the French group Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard bought Absolut for €5.63 billion in 2008 from the Swedish state. Absolut is one of the largest brands ...
to the readers of the first technology publication with a lifestyle slant. The magazine was quickly followed by a companion website ('' HotWired''), a book publishing division (HardWired), a Japanese edition, and a short-lived British edition (''Wired UK''). ''Wired UK'' was relaunched in April 2009. In 1994, John Battelle, cofounding editor, commissioned
Jules Marshall Zippie was briefly the name of the breakaway Yippie faction that demonstrated at the 1972 Republican and Democratic Conventions in Miami Beach, Florida. The origin of the word is an evolution of the term Yippie, which was coined by the Youth Int ...
to write a piece on the
Zippies Zippie was briefly the name of the breakaway Yippie faction that demonstrated at the 1972 Republican and Democratic Conventions in Miami Beach, Florida. The origin of the word is an evolution of the term Yippie, which was coined by the Youth Int ...
. The cover story broke records for being one of the most publicized stories of the year and was used to promote ''Wired''s ''HotWired'' news service. ''HotWired'' spawned websites Webmonkey, the search engine HotBot, and a weblog,
Suck.com Suck.com was an online magazine, one of the earliest ad-supported content sites on the Internet. It featured daily editorial content on a great variety of topics, including politics and pop-culture. Launched in 1995 and geared towards a Generati ...
. Quittner, Josh
"CULTURE: Web Dreams: Young punks and Old Media hacks. They're all on the Web chasing the same dream: money, power, ego-fulfillment - and the quick Sell Out. This is the story of Suck, by Josh Quittner, the hopelessly conflicted editor of Time's Netly News,"
''Wired'' (Nov. 1, 1996).
In June 1998, the magazine launched a stock index, the Wired Index, called the Wired 40 since July 2003. The fortune of the magazine and allied enterprises corresponded closely to that of the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Comp ...
. In 1996, Rossetto and the other participants in Wired Ventures attempted to take the company public with an IPO. The initial attempt had to be withdrawn in the face of a downturn in the stock market, and especially the Internet sector, during the summer of 1996. The second try was also unsuccessful. Rossetto and Metcalfe lost control of Wired Ventures to financial investors Providence Equity Partners in May 1998, which quickly sold off the company in pieces. ''Wired'' was purchased by Advance Publications, which assigned it to Advance's subsidiary, New York-based publisher Condé Nast Publications (while keeping ''Wired''s editorial offices in San Francisco). ''Wired Digital'' (''wired.com'', hotbot.com, webmonkey.com, etc.) was purchased by Lycos and run independently from the rest of the magazine until 2006, when it was sold by Lycos to Advance Publications, returning the websites to the same company that published the magazine.


Anderson era

''Wired'' survived the dot-com bubble and found new direction under
editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
Chris Anderson in 2001, making the magazine's coverage "more mainstream". The print magazine's average page length, however, declined significantly from 1996 to 2001 and then again from 2001 to 2003. Under Anderson, ''Wired'' has produced some widely noted articles, including the April 2003 "Welcome to the Hydrogen Economy" story, the November 2003 "Open Source Everywhere" issue (which put
Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also ...
on the cover and articulated the idea that the open-source method was taking off outside of software, including encyclopedias as evidenced by Wikipedia), the February 2004 "Kiss Your Cubicle Goodbye" issue (which presented the outsourcing issue from both American and Indian perspectives), and an October 2004 article by Chris Anderson, which coined the popular term "the Long Tail". The November 2004 issue of ''Wired'' was published with '' The Wired CD''. All of the songs on the CD were released under various Creative Commons licenses in an attempt to push
alternative copyright Various copyright alternatives in an alternative compensation systems (ACS) have been proposed as ways to allow the widespread reproduction of digital copyrighted works while still paying the authors and copyright owners of those works. This article ...
into the spotlight. Most of the songs were contributed by major artists, including the Beastie Boys,
My Morning Jacket My Morning Jacket is an American rock band formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1998. The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel, and keyboardist Bo Koster. The ...
, Paul Westerberg, and David Byrne. In 2005, ''Wired'' received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the category of 500,000 to 1,000,000 subscribers. That same year, Anderson won
Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mu ...
's editor of the year award. In May 2007, the magazine again won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. In 2008, ''Wired'' was nominated for three National Magazine Awards and won the ASME for Design. It also took home 14 Society of Publication Design Awards, including the Gold for Magazine of the Year. In 2009, ''Wired'' was nominated for four National Magazine Awards – including General Excellence, Design, Best Section (Start), and Integration – and won three: General Excellence, Design, and Best Section (Start). David Rowan from ''Wired UK'' was awarded the BSME Launch of the Year 2009 Award. On December 14, 2009, ''Wired'' magazine was named Magazine of the Decade by the editors of ''
Adweek ''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has cover ...
''. In 2006, writer Jeff Howe and editor Mark Robinson coined the term "crowdsourcing" in the June issue. The magazine's average page length increased by 8 percent between September 2003 and September 2008. In 2009, Condé Nast Italia launched the Italian edition of ''Wired'' and ''Wired.it''. On April 2, 2009, Condé Nast relaunched the UK edition of ''Wired'', edited by David Rowan, and launched ''Wired.co.uk''. Also in 2009, ''Wired'' writer Evan Ratliff "vanished", attempting to keep his whereabouts secret, saying "I will try to stay hidden for 30 days." A $5,000 reward was offered to his finder(s). Ratliff was found September 8 in New Orleans by a team effort, which was written about by Ratliff in a later issue. In 2010, ''Wired'' released its tablet edition. In 2012, Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries became the first female engineer featured on the cover of ''Wired''. In May 2013, ''Wired'' was included in
Condé Nast Entertainment Condé Nast Entertainment (also known as CNE) is a production and distribution studio with film, television, social and online video, and virtual reality content. CNE is headquartered at 1 World Trade Center. Background Previously, Condé Nast ...
with the announcement of five original webseries, including the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
satire '' Codefellas'' and the animated advice series ''
Mister Know-It-All ''Mister Know-It-All'' (or ''Mr. Know-It-All'') is an American animated web series distributed by technology news magazine ''Wired'', based on the popular advice column. Background After ''Wired'' joined Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a glob ...
''. ''Wired'' endorsed Democratic candidate
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This was the first time that the publication had ever endorsed a presidential candidate. In 2017, Nicholas Thompson became editor. The magazine won a National Magazine Award for design, launched a paywall, and became known for long investigative reports critiquing the tech industry.


Website

The Wired.com website, formerly known as ''Wired News'' and '' HotWired'', launched in October 1994. The website and magazine were split in the late 1990s, when the latter was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing, ''Wired News'' (the website) was bought by Lycos not long after. The two remained independent until Condé Nast purchased ''Wired News'' on July 11, 2006, largely in response to declining profits. This move finally reunited the print and digital editions of ''Wired'' and both are currently (as of 2019) closely linked editorially. As of February 2018, ''Wired.com'' is paywalled. Users may only access up to 4 articles per month without payment. Today, ''Wired.com'' hosts several technology
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...
s on topics in security, business, new products, culture, and science. NextFest From 2004 to 2008, ''Wired'' organized an annual "festival of innovative products and technologies". A NextFest for 2009 was canceled. * 2004: May 14–16 at the Fort Mason Center, San Francisco * 2005: June 24–26 at Navy Pier, Chicago * 2006: September 28 – October 1 at the
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James I ...
, New York City * 2007: September 13–16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles * 2008: September 27 – October 12 at
Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center ne ...
, Chicago


Supplement

''Geekipedia'' is a supplement to ''Wired''.


Contributors

''Wired''s writers have included Jorn Barger, John Perry Barlow, John Battelle, Paul Boutin, Stewart Brand,
Gareth Branwyn Kevin MaloofBranwyn, Gareth"We Did It! Thanks to All My Backers" ''Sparks of Fire Press'', Arlington, VA, USA, August 20, 2013. Retrieved on 10 June 2015. (born January 21, 1958), better known by his pseudonym, Gareth Branwyn, is a writer, editor, ...
,
Po Bronson Po Bronson (born March 14, 1964) is an American journalist and author who lives in San Francisco. Early life and education Bronson was born in Seattle, Washington. After attending Lakeside School in Seattle, he graduated from Stanford Univers ...
, Scott Carney,
Michael Chorost Michael Chorost (born December 26, 1964) is an American book author, essayist, and public speaker. Born with severe loss of hearing due to rubella, his hearing was partially restored with a cochlear implant in 2001 and he had his other ear implan ...
, Douglas Coupland, James Daly, Joshua Davis,
J. Bradford DeLong James Bradford "Brad" DeLong (born June 24, 1960) is an economic historian who is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. DeLong served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the Clint ...
,
Mark Dery Mark Dery (born December 24, 1959)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Mark Dery" (accessed February 12, 2008). is an American author, lecturer and cultural critic. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the ter ...
, David Diamond, Cory Doctorow, Esther Dyson, Mark Frauenfelder, Simson Garfinkel, Samuel Gelerman, William Gibson, Dan Gillmor
Mike Godwin Michael Wayne Godwin (born October 26, 1956) is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and he created the Internet adage Godwin's law and the notion of an Internet meme, as ...
, George Gilder,
Lou Ann Hammond Lou may refer to: __NOTOC__ Personal name * Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Lou (German singer) *Lou (French singer) * Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China * Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most common ...
, Chris Hardwick, Virginia Heffernan, Danny Hillis, John Hodgman, Steven Johnson, Bill Joy,
Richard Kadrey Richard Kadrey (born August 27, 1957) is a San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer. Kadrey was born in New York City, New York. Fiction Kadrey has written fifteen novels, including ''The New York Times'' Best Seller ...
, Leander Kahney, Jon Katz, Jaron Lanier, Lawrence Lessig, Paul Levinson, Steven Levy, John Markoff,
Wil McCarthy Wil () is the capital of the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Wil in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Wil is the third largest city in the Canton of St. Gallen, after the city of St. Gallen and Rapperswil-Jona, a twin city that merged in ...

Russ Mitchell
Glyn Moody, Belinda Parmar, Charles Platt,
Josh Quittner Josh Quittner (born February 12, 1957) is an American journalist. Quittner is CEO of Decrypt Media, a leading independent publication covering the world of Web 3.0, cryptocurrency, NFTs and more. Born in Manhattan, Quittner grew up in Reading, ...
, Spencer Reiss,
Howard Rheingold Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities ( ...
,
Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known ...
, Paul Saffo, Adam Savage, Evan Schwartz, Peter Schwartz, Steve Silberman,
Alex Steffen Alex Steffen (born 1968) is an American futurist who writes and speaks about sustainability and the future of the planet. He emphasizes the importance of imagining persuasive, positive possible futures: "It's literally true that we can't build ...
,
Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work e ...
, Bruce Sterling,
Kevin Warwick Kevin Warwick (born 9 February 1954) is an English engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University. He is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, and has also don ...
, Dave Winer, and Gary Wolf. Guest editors have included director J. J. Abrams, filmmaker
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post- New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability ...
, architect Rem Koolhaas, former US President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
, director Christopher Nolan, tennis player
Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) fo ...
, and video game designer Will Wright.


Criticism

As of April 4th 2022, Trustpilot ranks Wired at 2/5 stars. Wired gets 2.35/5 stars in another review website, Sitejabber.


See also

* Hack Canada (1998) organization run by hackers and phreakers * '' Why the Future Doesn't Need Us'' * '' Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog'' * ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''


References


Further reading


"''Wired UK'': what nearly happened"
an article on the rise and fall of ''Wired UK'' * *


External links

*
''Wired Italy'' website

''Wired Japan'' website

''Wired UK'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wired (Magazine) 1993 establishments in California 1993 in San Francisco Computer magazines published in the United States Lifestyle magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Science and technology magazines published in the United States Condé Nast magazines Magazines established in 1993 Magazines published in San Francisco South of Market, San Francisco Webby Award winners Whole Earth Catalog