Wired magazine

Wired magazine is a full-color monthly magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993. It reports on how technology and the Internet affect culture, the economy, and politics.

History

The magazine was founded by American journalist Louis Rossetto and his partner Jane Metcalfe in 1993 with initial backing from software entrepreneur Charlie Jackson and industry pundit Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab, who was a regular columnist for six years, through 1998.

Related Topics:
Louis Rossetto - Jane Metcalfe - Charlie Jackson - Nicholas Negroponte - MIT - Media Lab

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Wired was a great success at its launch and was compared to Rolling Stone for its innovation and cultural impact. The magazine won two National Magazine Awards for General Excellence and one for Design in its first four years.

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At inception Wired was also often compared to a predecessor, the magazine Mondo 2000. They both shared a creative use of design, and a cyberculture subject matter. Early issues of Wired showed a clear influence of Mondo 2000, but over time the two magazines diverged as Wired developed a more distinctive style. Mondo 2000 retained its more subversive emphasis of cyberculture, while Wired shifted emphasis more and more in a mainstream direction. Wired also toned down the extremities of design that made it difficult to read. The founding executive editor of Wired, Kevin Kelly, was formerly the editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and the Whole Earth Review, and he brought with him many contributing writers from those publications. Six authors of the first issue, Wired 1.01 had written for Whole Earth Review, most notably Bruce Sterling and Stewart Brand. Other contributors to Whole Earth appeared in Wired, including William Gibson who was featured on Wireds cover in its first year.

Related Topics:
Mondo 2000 - Cyberculture - Kevin Kelly - Whole Earth Catalog - Whole Earth Review - Bruce Sterling - Stewart Brand - William Gibson

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Despite the fact that Kelly was involved in launching the WELL, an early public access to the Internet, Wireds first issue (1.01) de-emphasized the internet, and primarily talked about interactive games, cell-phone hacking, digital special effects, military simulations, and Japanese otaku. Despite rumors to the contrary, the first issue contained many references to the internet, including a long article on online-date and internet sex, and a tutorial on installing a "bozo filter" to eliminate online posts to by trolls, among other references. The last page, a column written by Nicholas Negroponte, was written in the style of an e-mail message, but contained obviously fake, non-standard e-mail addresses. By the third issue in the fall of 1993 the 'Net Surf' column began listing interesting FTP sites, news groups, 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.

Related Topics:
WELL - Otaku - Nicholas Negroponte - 1993 - FTP - News groups - Email

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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. HotWired itself spawned dozens of websites including Webmonkey, the search engine Hotbot, and a weblog, Suck.com. In June 1998, the magazine even launched its own stock index, The Wired Index, since July 2003 called The Wired 40.

Related Topics:
HotWired - Webmonkey - Hotbot - Suck.com - 1998 - 2003

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The fortune of the magazine and allied enterprises corresponded closely to that of the dot-com boom.

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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 had to be withdrawn after an email by Rossetto to the staff, touting the company's prospects, was leaked to reporters, causing the SEC to rule that Wired had violated the "quiet period" regulations regarding IPOs.

Related Topics:
1996 - IPO

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Rossetto and Metcalfe lost control of Wired Ventures to financial investors Providence Equity in May 1998, who quickly sold off the company in pieces. Wired was purchased by Advance Publications, who assigned it to Advance's subsidiary, New York-based publisher Condé Nast Publications (while keeping Wireds editorial offices in San Francisco).

Related Topics:
Advance Publications - New York

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