And to cap off a fantastic day, we buy Wired News

As if today wasn't big enough, I am absolutely delighted to announce that a long-held dream of ours has been realized: we finally have our web site back. Conde Nast today announced the acquisition of Wired News.

You may be confused by this: Wired.com isn't the website of Wired Magazine? Well, for the last eight years it hasn't been. The magazine and website were separated in a complicated deal in 1998, long before my time (see this Wikipedia entry for more Wired history). The result was an agreement between the two, by which Wired News (wired.com) would host our content on their site (under wired.com/wired) next to their own content, but we, the magazine, were prohibited from doing anything in the digital realm. Aside from being somewhat ironic that Wired Magazine wasn't really wired, it was frustrating for us to be unable to walk the talk, since we didn't control the site.

Now we do. Today we have the opportunity to make Wired (the combined brands) a leader in online media innovation, exactly as our readers expect. We're bursting with ideas and can't wait to get started brainstorming with our cousins once-removed across the hall from us in San Francisco, who have done fantastic work with limited resources for all these years, sharing our name but not our keycards. Welcome to Conde Nast, Wired News! We've been waiting for this day for a long time.

Comments

[Om Malik]

yes indeed it is a great day - good luck chris. i know the magic is going to begin now.

[Paul McEnany]

Wow, good news for everybody. Congratulations!

[David McDonald]

This is fantastic news, congratulations Chris.

Wired magazine is in the only mag I read cover to cover each month, and it has been somewhat noticeable to me recently that the Wired website is not even in the same league as the magazine.

Not any more. I look forward to seeing a new convergence between the magazine and the website, and all the innovation that this may bring.

[Rex]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with the site. Any hints on editorial strategy?

[Davy Sims]

Congratulations. I suppose I should have known that the two were seperate (having been a reader of Wired since there was a UK edition (that goes bck a while) but never realised.

I have felt for the last few years that the wired Wired has been losing pace against newer (usually socially navigated) sites - but it's still a daily read for me.

PS Just waiting for Long Tail to drop through my letterbox in the next few hours.

[Richard Yan]

Hi,Chris
Hello form Beijing,China.I love your book and want to translate into chinese and publish in China.Will you tell me who handle the translation rights of your title?Publisher?or other agent?

Best Wishes

Richard

[Barry Ritholtz]

please please please start putting up infoporn ASAP!

[Leila Boujnane]

Congrats Chris, this is wonderful news!

[Stephen Downes]

Congratulations. All you need is the Wired Threads back and you'll have the complete set.

Those of us from the old Media Rant board would be happy to see that.

[John Furrier]

The Long Tail paradigm will go down in history as one of the greatest media "game changers" since the broadcast television. Great work Chris and team of researchers.

Congrats on the unification of the Wired brand!

[Bernie Goldbach]

Great news for us readers with a major addiction to the real Wired.

[Kathleen McKenzie]

Ooooo...I'm all tingly from all the love and respect.

[Mihael]

I suppose I should have known that the two were seperate (having been a reader of Wired since there was a UK edition (that goes bck a while) but never realised.

[Anastasia]

HI Chris!

I love your book! I have recommended it to some of my friends but not all of them can read English! I hoped you had it translated in a few other languages including Russian but as I can see not yet. I would be delighted to translate it into Russian for you! :)

Anastasia

[JackNtheBox]

I noticed from your comments you have a day job at Wired, so I have posted a letter that I have been trying to get through to the staff. I know most letters are just tossed, and if you toss this one, I understand. But I am at a loss as to how to get this one opinion out of the millions and to them.

Dear Editor(s) at Wired Magazine,

Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to cancel my subscription to your publication(s). Your recent issue of Wired Magazine was bundled with a free copy of Geekipedia: a supplement to Wired. The cover reads "149 People, places, ideas, and trends you need to know now." I subscribed to your magazine as a result of a college kid selling them for side money. I had read your magazine briefly in airports before and decided I could kill two birds with one stone by helping a student's future and getting what seemed to be a technically focused publication. I was happy with the prior two magazines, one featured Martha Stewart on the cover, and the other Halo 3.
However, I was not aware of your organizations radical and repugnant ethos and political stances; and was hard pressed to find any documentation after searching in reaction to pg 22 of Geekipedia. On page 22 of Geekipedia you blatantly compare fans of the book series Left Behind to al Qaeda. In your views both groups share a common bond of being "traumatized by breakneck social, political, and technical change," and that each "dwell in a faith-based dreamworld where ancient divine revelation is the only real source of news." I am a degreed I.T. professional, and no one who knows me or who has worked with me, or who has had so much as a ten minute conversation with me would say I am either traumatized by social changes for the common good or that I live in a dreamworld. If your organization does not hold my views on faith and social issues I couldn’t care less. Until, that is, you insult me in a publication bundled with a magazine I pay for. Comparing the readers of a work of fiction based on the Holy Bible, the most published book in all history written for the express purpose of communicating love to the world, to a murderous band of terrorists and despots, whose only fame is because of their wanton lack of sanity and unquenchable bloodlust, is deplorable.

Excerpt from Page 22 “ Big-Idea apocalyptics promote either the Rapture, where everybody else disappears – thus obviating the need to think about tomorrow – or jihadist martyrdom, where they themselves disappear and take as many unbelievers as possible with them. Major proponents: Left Behind fans, al Qaeda.”

The only way you could win me back as a customer and promoter (as I have been touting the merits of subscription to other technical personnel I encounter) is to print a full and complete retraction in the front of the magazine where it is certain to be seen and read as well as on the website(s) you publish, not solely in the tiny mice-type corrections section that you hope we just don’t notice. Barring this unlikeliest of events, consider my subscription terminated, and this my appeal for my pre-paid monies to be returned in good-faith. After all I wouldn’t buy a magazine from a proclaimed Christian-hating group who actually came out and said so, unlike your organization that simply makes apparently sardonic jokes about people who read faith-based fiction.

P.S. for each continued issue you send, without a printed apology, you will receive back a shredded issue in a recyclable envelope.

In Ernest,
ex-subscriber

[Gary]

Well,JackNtheBox, who wound you up? I guess there is more than one way to cancel a subscription. :)

[marina penalva]

Hi Chris,

I am very interested in publishing your book FREE in Catalan language, but have had difficulties finding out who handles translation rights for you. Could you direct me to the right person? We are the second largest publishers in Catalan language.

best wishes,
Marina