Wired UK: is it likely to survive?

Wired UK: is it likely to survive?

4 April 2009, 6:25 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

So Wired magazine is having a second crack at launching in the UK – this time under the leadership of editor, David Rowan.

This has been 11 years in-the-waiting for Condé Nast, who bought the US technology magazine from Wired Ventures in 1998. And it’s hardly surprising it’s waited so long, considering Wired’s first attempt at a UK launch in 1995, which resulted in failure.

Cover of Wired UK sample issue

What is surprising, however, is the timing of the launch. Why has Condé Nast waited until now – the most fragile financial period in recent history – to establish a new technology magazine, when it’s up against a culture of successful blogs, dedicated to breaking the same content, and a media landscape scattered with the corpses of failed print publications?

As a high-end technology and lifestyle magazine, its intended readership – the UK digerati, which largely consists of 20–40 something middle-class men – is already fully immersed in the Internet, with free content and more information than could ever possibly be consumed. Not only is it also up against men’s magazines – and as the Guardian points out, high-end publications like the Economist and Monocle – but its sister magazine, WIred US, and that’s going to be a tough act to follow.

Advertising models are in tatters too, and according to the Guardian, Wired US has been hit by a 57% drop in ad revenue.

But even in the face of these huge obstacles, Condé Nast has decided the time is right to give life to Wired UK, as well as style magazine, Love. For me, this is a bold move, and a huge investment in the future survival of print media – especially in the wake of Bauer’s closure of Arena, and news that Nat Mags is clipping 15% of its UK workforce.

I’ve just picked up a copy of Wired UK’s sample edition, but until I see the launch issue as a whole, it’s probably unfair to pass judgement. As far as first impressions go, though, I’m not really blown away. The cover is a somewhat clichéd and poorly rendered image of a futuristic London, and I didn’t find the content particularly engaging.

It does, however, hint at the clever infographics Wired US is famous for, and the potential for forward-thinking, long-form journalism that could set it apart from its foes in the blogosphere.

At a recent editors’ forum in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of hearing from Scott Dadich, the Design Director of Wired US. He gave us a tour of the magazine from a visual perspective, and it’s clear that its print format is a world apart from the web – with multiple page features, powerful photography and well-considered graphics that bring a hoard of new dimensions to the magazine’s editorial.

Hopefully, Wired UK can emulate the look and feel of its American sibling, whilst publishing content that is engaging, topical and quintessentially British.

But whether the print magazine can finance its future survival is a question that’s still, as yet, unanswerable. The web still offers free content, and that undervalues the very lifeblood of the media. I’m going to agree with Rupert Murdoch on this one, we need a money-spinning model for online content that doesn’t rely on ad revenue, and we need it fast.

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