Wired magazine rewires for a new age

If you're not someone who would typically read a technology magazine, then Chris Anderson wants you.

The editor in chief of Wired is revamping the publication that debuted in 1993 and became a must-read for techies and those trying to keep up with the digital explosion.

The audience he's after now – after the dotcom bust and the spread of technology coverage to outlets as varied as Rolling Stone and the nightly news – is much broader. Wired's new helmsman says it's time to make the publication more accessible, to embrace people "who might not normally think of themselves as reading a technology magazine."

Like the digital world it draws on, Wired is moving from revolution to evolution. Once known for its jarring graphics and edgy approach to culture and technology issues, the magazine today is easier to read – no crazy fonts in sight – and is settling into a more general-interest niche.

Consider the cover subject for the June redesign issue: Steven Spielberg – not exactly a poster boy for Silicon Valley. In fact, when asked if people who've never picked up the magazine might feel put off by its contents, Mr. Anderson points to the cover and asks, "Is that intimidating?"

What's inside the latest edition makes engaging reading. The redesign makes it easier to negotiate, though the changes are somewhat subtle. In the cover story, Mr. Spielberg discusses his new thriller, "Minority Report," which is based on a work by the same sci-fi author who inspired "Blade Runner." Also among its pages are features on technology being developed to help drivers see better at night, and video games – a hot topic and a particular passion of the editor.

As magazine expert David Abrahamson sees it, Wired is no longer shaping social reality, it's reflecting it.

"They still do a great job of reporting. It's still an editorially very viable book," says Professor Abrahamson, who teaches at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. "Now it moves to a less speculative ... slightly more conventional modality."

Wired was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in general excellence this year, but as Abrahamson points out, "No one today is doing what Wired circa 1996 was doing," including Wired. "How many years can you be the new thing?" he says.

Those who wrote for Wired early on say it excelled at discovering what was right under everyone's nose, but no one was seeing. One article, for example, drew attention to corporations, like McDonald's, that were slow to secure their company domain names (addresses) on the Internet. Some ended up having to buy them from quick-thinking competitors – or Wired authors.

Wired influenced Anderson from the start. He studied physics, and was using the Internet back in the 1980s, but says, "I really didn't get the power of the whole thing until I read about it in Wired."

After he became the technology editor for The Economist, he says. Wired often influenced his decisions about what to cover.

Page: 1 | 2