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Getting Wired: The Launch (1992–93)

12 min readJun 6, 2025

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Wired’s first issue — January 1993

(continuation of a previous post)

If you ever have a hit on your hands, my advice is to take notes. Living in the whirlwind of blinding success is a little like experiencing your own wedding — everyone tells you to enjoy it, to remember every detail. But decades later, all you can recall is leaving the reception, relieved that everyone seemed to have a good time.

We launched Wired in January of 1993. It was an instant hit. Nine months later I was a married man. The wedding was also a hit, at least, that’s what I’ve been told. I wish I had taken notes during both these momentous occasions, but the truth is, my journals are mostly silent around both those dates. So again, my advice: pay attention. You might want to write about (or remember) these things someday.

September, 1992. Four months before Wired launched, I flew to New York to meet Wired’s President, Jane Metcalfe. After our interview, her partner Louis Rossetto offered me the job of Managing Editor — starting immediately. I was to fly back to San Francisco and start the process of taking Louis’ vision and turning it into a physical object: paper, ink, and journalism. There was one small hitch: I had told Michelle, the woman I was falling for, that I was going to move to New York to be with her.

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John Battelle
John Battelle

Written by John Battelle

A Founder of DOC, The Recount, NewCo, Federated Media, sovrn Holdings, Web 2 Summit, Wired, Industry Standard; writer on Media, Technology, Culture, Business

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