Print Mags: Wired –> MIT Technology Review
Tl;dr: Being a Wired reader used to define me. Not anymore. And I’m turning to the Tech Review.
Disclaimer: You probably won’t care about this but I’ll give you a cookie if you carry on reading. 👓👇
It all started in 2012 when I was a young man waiting for an Eurostar at Saint-Pancras. I decided to buy a copy of this “Wired” Magazine. Jonathan Ive was on the cover, I started reading and immediately loved it. I had been longing for this kind of magazine in France, and from that day became an ardent reader of Wired Magazine (UK Edition).
Reading Wired represented for me those moments of deep focus when I would find out about all these people from all around the world trying as hard as they can to “do things”. Knowing that the world is in motion is a pleasant feeling and I can shamelessly admit that some articles would give me shivers of delight.
I remember this one morning in Paris stopping by le Publicis Drugstore before going to work to buy one fresh copy of the WhatsApp issue (because I couldn’t wait to read about the inside story after the $19 billion buyout).
It’s also hard to forget what I considered the best issue ever (featuring Demis Hassabis’ DeepMind, and also articles about some ideas to “reboot” the UK). All of it was premium content! 💯
Well I think that’s enough nostalgia right there. The shrewd reader must be wondering what could have possibly happened next!! 😜
The December/January issue of this year happened. All of a sudden I came to realize things which I had been unconsciously auto-hiding from myself (being a true fan of the magazine 🙈):
- Too many ads (is it Wired or GQ I’m reading?) and annoying ones like all the promoted content sections.
- Too big (not convenient to carry around).
- Too much content not of interest to me.
A version of Wired without ads would have solved the first two problems. And I would have been happy to pay up to 10 times the normal price to have an ad-free magazine. But as they are unquestionably going mainstream it’s very unlikely that this is on their roadmap.
A friend of mine offered me the subscription for Wired for christmas, and as a sign from destiny, I never received any issues of the magazine (even though he contacted their customer service multiple times). This was time for a change!
You might have heard of the MIT Technology Review because they publish every year their list called “TR35” to recognize 35 innovators under the age of 35 (yet another life goal 😁).
Their bi-monthly print magazine is thin and presents investigative stories around the usual tech topics (deep-learning anyone?!).
Unfortunately they also have ads, but less of them, and they’re better targeted (e.g. less GQ-style).
The magazine is not thick and doesn’t weigh much, which makes it easy to carry around. And it’s actually a good feeling to know that you’ll probably read all of it over the two-month period — no wasted pages.
For me this is like the good parts of Wired, without the noise. So I subscribed this year and am happy so far. I get my shivers of delight by reading it too. I will just miss the european focus of the UK edition of Wired (the Tech Review feels very “US”).
I think this is it!
This was my quick farewell to Wired. I really wanted to write down my thoughts, mostly to make this change official for myself (oddly, this matters more than I thought!).
My life goal of making it into an issue of Wired Magazine will remain, but I’m now a Tech Review reader.
Thanks for your time,
As promised, here’s a cookie: 🍪
PS: I can’t believe #WiredAndChill never got trending. Might want to try again with #TechReviewAndChill 😂
PPS: The editor in chief of the MIT Tech Review has got a cool dog.
PPPS: Hilarious! https://youtu.be/5Y64UeNeiOM?t=2m34s
PPPPS: Fitbit and Wired, that’s two things I don’t do anymore. (https://medium.com/@teawaterwire/thank-you-fitbit-but-bye-for-now-c09afba62b1f#.8wni3y23j)
