Tech magazine Wired UK is dropping from a bimonthly to a quarterly print schedule, it has told subscribers.
In a letter sent with copies of the January and February issue of the Condé Nast-owned magazine, the UK edition of the title also told readers that it had “gone global” and would be “uniting our global newsroom into a single, powerful team”.
The changes will go into effect beginning with the next issue of Wired UK. Subscriptions are to be extended “to ensure that you still receive the number of issues you were expecting in your current subscription period”, the magazine said.
Press Gazette understands there are no personnel changes planned at Wired UK as a result, although the news coincides with reports that Condé Nast has begun a new round of layoffs affecting several of its executives.
The publication frequency change brings the UK edition in line with Wired Italy and Wired Japan, which were already quarterly. As well as its US, UK, Italy and Japan editions, Condé Nast publishes Wired Mexico & Latin America and, under licence, Wired Korea, Wired Czech Republic and Slovakia and Wired Middle East.
In the letter, which was not attributed to any specific staff member, Wired UK said that going quarterly would allow the publication “to bring together Wired’s journalism from multiple time zones, capturing the diverse perspectives of our teams across North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe.
“This approach enables us to cover the most essential and urgent stories of our time — stories that define our future — reported by Wired’s award-winning cohort of writers and brought to life with top-tier photography and cutting-edge design.”
Wired announced nearly three years ago that it would begin combining its UK and US websites, and visitors to wired.co.uk appear to have been getting redirected to wired.com since last year.
Then-global editorial director Gideon Lichfield said at the time that Wired’s US and UK newsrooms “are already working as one” in “a single team”, although “we’ll still publish two separate print editions”. Lichfield has since left and been replaced by former Vice senior vice president for global news and entertainment Katie Drummond.
Another Condé Nast title, GQ, rolled out a global content strategy in 2021 that saw all its international editorial and commercial teams begin working together. The company has continued to operate country- and region-specific versions of GQ, for example GQ France and British GQ, although they have on occasion shared front covers.
International editions of Wired have for some time occasionally shared cover stories, and the January and February editions of Wired in the UK and US both feature Apple chief executive Tim Cook on their cover.
Wired UK has monthly sales of around 30,000 copies, with further free distribution of around 11,000. Sales include around 5,000 through “all you can read” subscriptions such as Apple+ .
[Read more: GQ’s Will Welch on brand’s post-pandemic global transformation plan]
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