Position/Organization: senior editor, Wired

How to Get into Wired
The boss says Wired is a magazine about how science and technology are changing the world we live in. I sometimes say that everything in Wired reads like science fiction, except that it’s true. Those two ideas contain a lot of clues for what kind of stories we’re looking for: No speculative, in-twenty-years-robots-will-drive-our-flying-cars stuff. We like things that are real, that are happening, that are on sale or being used somewhere. We like narratives, with people doing something, ideally with someone or something trying to stymie them. We publish stories from every beat you can think of, as long as they’re tinged with Wired culture or science and tech, or both. And we like stories that make us say, “holy crap, that’s really happening?” But we’re very well read—it’s hard to surprise us.

Here is a trick: Don’t ignore the front of the book. Wired’s Start section focuses on the culture of scientists, technologists, engineers, businesspeople, and geeks of all stripes. The Play section is our arts-and-entertainment hub. Both sections pay well, ask for short, pithy pieces, and are a good way to prove that you can write in a Wired voice, about subjects we care about (and kick in stories on deadline, on the word count we assign).

Don’t forget that Wired is edited by a lot of people who have the responsibility of filling pages of a magazine with awesome stuff. We are honestly desperate for your ideas, and we really want to have writers do stories we’re all proud of. If you pitch and we say no, pitch again (unless we tell you to stop). (But we won’t.) (Probably.)