Wired Magazine Gift Subscription Gift Pack ( 12 issues)

November 11th, 2010

Rating: (out of 2 reviews)

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Available from Anazon UK:

Posted in Magazine Subscriptions | Tags: Gift, issues, Magazine, Pack, Subscription, Wired

2 Responses to “Wired Magazine Gift Subscription Gift Pack ( 12 issues)”

A. Hopkinson:

November 11, 2010 at 5:08 am

Review by A. Hopkinson for Wired Magazine Gift Subscription Gift Pack ( 12 issues)
Rating:
I’ve been a long-term Wired reader, starting with the American issue and then subscribing to the UK issue when it launched in April 2009. The magazine has a decent mix of short news and announcement type stories and long, well-researched articles covering fairly diverse topics such as new business models/thinking, technology, psychology and science. I tend to skim read each edition first, then spend the rest of the month working through the more in-depth content.

Wired is particularly known for its graphic design and the infographics used to illustrate the editorial content. If you (or the recipient of your gift) are a bit of a graph geek and/or love technology, science, processes-at-work and the like then this will be a great read.
Geoff Holt:

November 11, 2010 at 5:45 am

Review by Geoff Holt for Wired Magazine Gift Subscription Gift Pack ( 12 issues)
Rating:
I received a 12 month subscription to WIRED from a friend. I went through the online-registration a few weeks ago fairly painlessly and this morning the April 2010 issue landed on my doorstep. I skim-read it this morning (and was surprised that nothing on first skim caught my attention) so I made time at lunch to give it a thorough read. And my verdict? It seems to be a magazine with no identity. One minute it is trying to be FORBES or FORTUNE magazine telling us the secrets of the super-rich enrepreneur, the next minute it is trying to be the GADGET SHOW magazine showing us gadgets like CD players costing more than £11,000 – assuming that is you can wade through all the advertorials and adverts for other magazine titles from the same distributor. The size is an odd format and the cover feels plastic-like. Doesn’t have the immediate feel-good factor in your hand like other magazines. Perhaps it’s trying too hard to be different.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of detailed reporting inside but I have absolutely no idea who it sees as its customer. The only two things which remotely interested me was the psychology behind the way restaurant menus are laid out to entice us to spend more money (which the restaurant owner then completely refutes making the article pointless) and a rather snazzy £45,000 motorbike. Even the editorial is “clunky” and difficult to read easily and the font small.

If you are a techno-geek and you like the magazine, then good for you but can I suggest that you need to get out more. It really is dire and I’m at a loss to understand exactly how they managed to get any advertisers to pay for the dubious honour of advertising in the magazine.

Hats off to you guys for keeping a magazine title alive during the recession but I’ll be surprised if I’m still receiving it a year from now – if so, I can forwarn you that I won’t be renewing my subscription.