Content area
Dan O'Brien's account of what went wrong with the first attempt at a UK edition of Wired makes for compelling reading. But as Conde Nast's senior executives gear up to make a new pass at this one, there are probably worse things they could do than to re-read O'Brien's salutary tale. Ajaz Ahmed, chairman, AKQA, said there needs to be a digital lifestyle and business publication that covers Europe in more depth. Alison Broils, Nokia's global head, marketing planning, argues it won't be easy staying true to the Wired brand -- and that will be a very important factor if the magazine is to succeed.
Will the Condé Nast title succeed second time around, Alasdair Reid asks
FORUM
Dan O'Brien's account of what went wrong with the first attempt at a UK edition of Wired (www.spesh.com/danny/wireduk) makes for compelling reading. More than a decade on, it seems like a story from another time on another planet. Which, in a sense,it is. Or was.
But as Condé Nast's senior executives gear up to make a new pass at this one, there are probably worse things they could do than to re-read O'Brien's salutary tale.
It contains an evocative reminder of the aggressively sectarian nature of the US edition in its trailblazing days. It burned ardently with the belief that the advent of the cyberworld would entail the revenge of the geek - and, indeed, many people in this country continued to read the undiluted US gospel in preference to the rather unconvincing edition that emerged over here (courtesy of Wired's fragile joint venture with Guardian Newspapers in the mid-90s).
Ultimately, the classic US model proved fragile, too. It all-too-perfectly captured the undercurrents of fear and loathing in the new economy, while tirelessly manning the pumps that helped prime the dotcom crash.
Consequently, in the cold light of a new century, the geeks proved less threatening than they'd earlier seemed - and Wired, too, evolved. Having been sold by its original owners to Condé Nast in 1998, the San Francisco-based title has ploughed on through thin times as well as fat; while rivals such as Red Herring have proved exactly that.
It's a true survivor. But do we really need our own version - a UK-oriented magazine exploring that small corner of the world where technology, the economy and social trends meet? After all, the digital economy has become just the boring old everyday economy, stupid. And isn't it rather odd, when the whole world is either blogging, reading blogs or Twittering, to find Wired seeking to turn the clock back to quaint old ink and paper?
It's true, though, that as web-based media prepares to administer the coup de grâce to older media forms, and as the victors of Web 2.0 talk knowingly about the even more powerful Web 3.0 that is to come, there's a new form of militancy abroad. Is that militancy enough to define a readership?
The digital agency veteran Ajaz Ahmed, the chairman of AKQA, was very much in the target market first time around. So what does he think of the prospects for take two? "There needs to be a digital lifestyle and business publication that covers Europe in more depth, as the US titles don't pay too much attention to what is happening here."
And there's a lot happening on this side of the Atlantic, he points out - most notably at mobile companies such as Nokia and games developers. But Alison Broils, Nokia's global head of marketing planning, argues it won't be easy staying true to the Wired brand and that will be a very important factor if the magazine is to succeed.
She explains: "The editorial has to be relevant to UK readers - not just lifted from the USedition-and yet retain its essence, which was, and still is, all about trend-spotting, finger-on-the-pulse and giving readers the inside track. If it can achieve this, then I think it'll create an expanded readership and a host of newly interested advertisers."
Mark Gallagher, an executive director at Manning Gottlieb OMD, agrees that this is a difficult one to call. He says: "Condé Nast has an incredible heritage, obviously, for making things work - but it will be interesting to see where it pitches this. I take on board the intention to appeal to a wider [non-geeky] audience, but, the truth is, I really don't know about this one."
Greg Grimmer, a partner at Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, doesn't exactly see it that way. He concludes: "If we're entering into a second dotcom boom, then the timing is good. Wired will find an audience among the BlackBerry generation - the 25- to 45-year-old demographic that's grown up with the digital economy. It may not attract a huge readership - but it will be an important readership."
Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Jul 11, 2008