Scott Dadich had no idea that a low-budget side project he independently assumed last spring would change the way Wired digitally delivers its message. But, it did.
The magazine’s award-winning creative director (pictured, right) decided to develop a version of Wired for e-reading devices. Initial sketches led to a video prototype, which he showed to editor-in-chief Chris Anderson.
Anderson admits he wasn’t thinking much about tablets. The Apple iPad was still just an unnamed rumor, and Anderson was preoccupied with improving Wired’s Web site. Little did he know at the time that Dadich’s project would help propel Wired and its parent company, Condé Nast, to the forefront of digital magazine delivery.
Wired is a place that’s heavily influenced by Silicon Valley geek culture, and many of Dadich’s colleagues—including Anderson, best known for penning books like The Long Tail and Free—pursue outside creative projects.
“I’ll be honest: Scott spotted it before I did,” Anderson says. “I’m not an early adopter. I tend to get version two of everything. What the video did for us was wake us up to the potential for the strategy.”
Unknown to Dadich, 33, while he was tinkering with his invention, Condé Nast brass had independently started talks with Adobe about translating the company’s magazines for various digital platforms. It made sense to start with Wired: If Adobe could handle Wired’s complicated design, with its intricate graphics and constantly changing templates, it could handle any magazine. (It helped that Wired’s San Francisco offices are just a couple blocks from Adobe’s.)
Continue to next page →
