Re: <nettime> reinventing the future: P05+ |<EUU|_

[dmandl {AT} panix.com (David Mandl)]

At 1:13 PM 8/6/97, t byfield quoted:

>> Wired magazine is hoping to reinvent itself:  "You can only be cool once,"
>> says Wired executive editor Kevin Kelly,

OK, so when was the first time?

>> "so I think we're going into a
>> postcool period and we're going to be as radical as we can without being
>> cool." The new direction?  "I don't think at all that the storm has passed
>> or the rebels have cleared the street.  So we'll still be there trying to
>> scout ahead and report back from this other continent west of California
>> that we call the future.  All we're saying is this revolution is bigger than
>> you thought."  (New York Times 4 Aug 97)

This was a good story (scooped by Thomas Goetz of the Village Voice a week
earlier, incidentally).  The gist, for those of you who haven't heard, is
that Louis Rossetto is stepping down as CEO of Wired Megacorp and beginning
a search for a real businessman to run the company.  This after TWO failed
attempts to do an IPO--nothing short of amazing, considering the thousands
of junk cyber companies that have gone public at grossly inflated prices
recently.  Wired (the parent company as a whole, not the magazine) is
hemorrhaging money and already scaling back its web site and other
ventures.

My favorite quote in the Times article, from Kevin Kelly: "Consumerism is
revolutionary."

   --Dave.

--
Dave Mandl
dmandl {AT} panix.com
davem {AT} wfmu.org
http://www.wfmu.org/~davem


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