The Daily Ping

The 10,000th Ping will be published on May 24, 2027. Paul will be just about 50 years old.

April 26th, 2000

Requiem for Wired

Once upon a time, there was no print magazine for a particular developing community. Young people, skilled with using technology, working in a high-tech field, with a decent amount of disposable income. People who wanted to keep up not strictly on whose new OS would perform best, but also who put out a really fashionable pair of speakers. That group was perfect for Wired.

Last year, Wired Ventures was in deep financial trouble and seeked an investor. Conde Nast ended up with the magazine, and Lycos ended up with the online properties. There was a time when Wired News was perhaps the most up-to-date tech news source; in my mind it’s been surpassed by monoliths Ziff-Davis and c|net. But something happened when these sources were bought; Wired lost something.

The print mag still looked incredible, design-wise, but content deteriorated. The sites lost some of the spark and flavor they once exhibited in writing and design. Heck, I don’t even like Webmonkey that much anymore – and that was a true resource.

Who will pick up the slack? Any ideas? -pm

Posted in Technology

Paul April 27, 2010, 12:59 pm

Interestingly, I’m finding that Wired is totally readable and actually pretty good now. I’m going to attribute the nature of this Ping to my being a younger man railing against large corporations.

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