Conde Nast-owned Wired magazine has tapped Chris Anderson, U.S. business editor of the Economist, for its top editorial spot, the company announced Wednesday.
Reflecting an industry-wide shift, the appointment appears to indicate a move away from the tech-driven coverage of Wired's past as the magazine continues to target a more mainstream and business-minded audience. Business and technology magazines have been hit by a wrenching tailspin in revenues since late last year as advertisers pinch spending amid an overall economic slowdown.
"Chris' professional and academic background in journalism, technology, science and economics make him a great fit for Wired," said Conde Nast editorial director James Truman in a prepared statement. "Most importantly, he has the kind of imagination and intelligence to maintain Wired’s vanguard position at the cutting edge of ideas and innovation."
Anderson succeeds former editor Katrina Heron, who left the company last month to pursue interests that would be less demanding on her family life. Heron has been widely credited for keeping Wired relevant after founder Louis Rossetto left and took the magazine past the 500,000-circulation mark.
The new editor will have his work cut out for him. A slump in technology stocks and a general advertising downturn has taken its toll on media companies. In the first four months of this year, Wired's ad pages slid 27 percent from the same period last year, according to Media Industry Newsletter. By contrast, the Red Herring shed about 45 percent of its ad pages and The Industry Standard, whose parent company Standard Media International also owns TheStandard.com, lost more than 65 percent during the same period.
Moreover, Wired will have to gird for competition from Time, which is expected to purchase Future Networks-owned Business 2.0, according to published reports.
The new editor has spent the past eight years rising up the ranks of the Economist, starting as the technology editor in London. He served as the Hong Kong bureau chief and Asia business editor from 1997 to 2000. By 2000, he was the U.S. business editor.
Before the Economist, Anderson was a reporter at Nature magazine and an editor at Science magazine.
He is expected to start June 4.
