We didn’t have much money when we launched Wired back in January of 1993, but we needed to get the word out somehow. We couldn’t spend our way into brand recognition, so we orchestrated a guerilla campaign: The week Wired hit newsstands, day-glo posters with just two words were plastered on construction sites, vacant wall space, and buses all over San Francisco, New York, and a few other tech-heavy cities. “GET WIRED!” the ads proclaimed. Never mind that no one knew what Wired was. The point was to get people’s attention, and judging from the newsstand sales, it worked.
(If you want part of the history of that period, read my piece “Get Wired,” which I published earlier this year.)
Fast forward a few decades, and Wired was still a robust voice in the tech world, though I felt it had meandered away from its core with a bit too much lifestyle and gadget coverage, not to mention the adulatory pieces about an industry increasingly beholden not to its customers, but its financial interests. That all changed with Wired’s new editor, Katie Drummond, who took the reins two years ago. Drummond brought a bit of the original rebel voice back to Wired, and she found her true north covering – and eviscerating – Elon Musk’s ridiculous implementation of DOGE earlier this year. She also has taken on the MAHA regime of RFK Jr. and the insanity of longevity influencers, which as the co-founder of DOC I certainly appreciate.
So it brought a bit of a smile to my face to read an email from Drummond announcing the launch of this month’s “politics issue,” a no-holds barred takedown of the unholy marriage between the tech industry and Trumpism. My smile turned to a grin when I read that Wired will be promoting the issue – replete with provocative and unflattering imagery depicting tech oligarchs playing poker with the President – via a guerilla campaign of billboards and posters in major US tech hubs.
“At WIRED, we once saw ourselves as chroniclers, even champions, of an industry that seemed to transcend politics,” Drummond writes in her introduction to the issue. “This year, though, we’ve been clear about where we stand: We’re profoundly concerned about the United States’ authoritarian turn and the tech industry’s complicity in Trump’s actions. And we’re committed to continuing our coverage.”
Given the climate of fear, retribution, and cowardice now dominant in the United States, where major media companies are being sold to MAGA billionaires and tech overlords paying tribute to (and funding) King Donald, Wired and Drummond’s backbone is both commendable and needed. Keep it up, Wired, you make me proud!
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