Wired's Geeky EIC Isn't Geeky Enough
Much as I'd like to see Anna Wintour in a polo, fleece vest and baseball cap, Chris Anderson is unique among Condé Nast's editors-in-chief in being openly geeky. For a segment on Wired's PBS science show, Anderson flew aircraft drones with hobbyists, and wrote and narrated the segment himself (it's embedded below). Though it looks like he really enjoyed himself, it also feels like he's telling Wired's core nerd audience, "We're still keeping it real!" But they aren't! Update: Chris points out that he is indeed a hardcore geek who runs a whole forum about DIY drones. Wired still not geeky.
Before Boing Boing blogged the segment yesterday, the last popular Wired story to float around the web was Rex Sorgatz's analysis of Wired's first issue, long before Condé Nast took it over, turned it mainstream, and put Anderson in charge. One ad featured a fully nude baby peeing into the air; articles were hard to read. And the thing was really geeky. "These people actually had opinions about routers and ethernet cables!" says Rex.
Now they have opinions about Lonelygirl15. The magazine has been Tina Browned. They review Transformers; they print an infographic about how to hit on girls with your iPhone. Which is fine with me (especially since I wrote that last one), but it's entertainment, and it's about as groundbreaking as Maxim.
So yeah, it's neat to see Wired's editor play with unmanned planes. But until I see him invent a new model, the dude ain't geeky enough.