Wired UK Launch Issue

The ‘UK LAUNCH ISSUE’ of WIRED magazine is currently on the shelves of newsagents around the UK.

I had to buy it, I was a BIG fan of the last WIRED UK, when it was published back in the mid-90s, indeed, I was a subscriber.  Many a long train journey was whiled away with the fat magazine, reading of geeky techery and MIT wizardry.

So what’s the new version like?  Well, it looks and feels exactly the same.  Same logo, same fold-out cover on textured stock.  Similar price (£3.90).  It’s now full of ‘men’s magazine’ high-end advertising for cars, watches and fragrance.

I fast forwarded very quickly to the Editor’s page, to see what they had to say about themselves, and about the previous WIRED UK.  On page 19 (what’s wrong with the editor’s page being on page 3 or 5?) David Rowan welcomes us all to WIRED, and bigs it up with proof from the US version of the mag.

BUT!  Not a mention in the slightest of the previous UK version of the magazine!

Time to dig deeper…

It transpires it’s actually the THIRD incarnation of the UK edition!  No wonder they don’t want to talk about it…

Version 1: a failed Guardian/Rosetto&Metcalfe partnership described here by Danny O’Brien

Version 2: an ‘in-house’ UK version which lived from ‘95-’97. Some of the article content is archived here

In 1998 Wired Ventures was sold off, eventually ending up in the hands of Conde Nast, who have only taken 10 years to launch a UK version, aand they’re launching an Italian version at the same time.

Content wise, it’s the same old WIRED content: futurism, fetish and fluorescent ink.  The advertising has clearly been poached from it’s stable mate GQ.

I think I like it, it’s like a men’s magazine with less testosterone: no torsos, tits nor travel.

Oh, and they’ve got a website: www.wired.co.uk, naturally.