After twelve years as Wired’s editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson will depart the magazine at the end of the year to focus full-time on his company 3D Robotics. “Chris joined Wired as editor in chief in 2001. During his tenure, the magazine received eight National Magazine Awards, including the prestigious top prize for General Excellence in 2005, 2007 and 2009,” said Conde Nast in a statement. “This is an opportunity for me to pursue an entrepreneurial dream,” added Anderson. “I’m confident that Wired’s mission to influence and chronicle the digital revolution is stronger than ever and will continue to expand and evolve.”
While the magazine has thrived, Anderson has also gained his own reputation as a brand name, but not without bumps. As New York’s Boris Kachka wrote in this week’s magazine, in an article about the fall of former Wired blogger Jonah Lehrer, Anderson “has himself been caught plagiarizing twice, the second time in an uncorrected proof. The often-absentee editor of a futurist magazine that may be the house journal of the lecture circuit, Anderson makes his living precisely as Lehrer did — snipping and tailoring anecdotal factoids into ready-to-wear tech-friendly conclusions.”
His successor has not yet been named, but already, observers online are calling for a female replacement. In the words of Wired reporter Steve Silberman, “It’s been a boys’ club for too long.”
