Condé Nast is looking to launch a UK edition of Wired magazine according to Media Week (free registration required). Wired, of course, did once before launch a UK edition that sadly closed a couple of years later. But that pre-dates Condé Nast’s ownership and now they’re again readying a UK version.
Great!
But then I read this:
Paul Thomas, head of press at MindShare, believes Wired would need significant changes if it is to succeed in the UK.
“Wired as it stands will not work over here,” he said. “It is very techie and needs to be more -generalist, particularly with the advertisers it is likely to want to get in there.”
I really hope the publishers don’t pay too much attention to statements like that! It’s a bit like saying that the US edition of Vogue is a bit too fashion-centric and would need to be more generalist for the UK where we don’t like fashion as much. Nonsense.
Why does he think that people buy the widely available US edition of Wired? It’s for the “techie” aspect of it. If we wanted something “generalist”, there’s a wealth of magazines already out there. Where’s the point of difference? And I’d recommend that he looks at the calibre of the advertisers the US edition gets – they’re big companies with some serious budgets.
If I was looking at a UK version of Wired, I’d model it very closely on the US edition, reprinting, concurrently, the major pieces such as Chris Anderson’s current and very widely read “Free” piece. Otherwise, your readers are simply going to buy the imported edition.
Don’t mess with a winning formula.