Dear Backchannel readers,
Last summer, Backchannel joined Condé Nast as part of the Wired Media Group. For all of the reasons you imagine, it made sense. Though we have our own distinct personality, we’re a lot like WIRED. In fact, Steven and Jessi both hail from WIRED. And like the editors there, we have a deep conviction that accurately reported news presented with context is a critical tool for understanding the future.
And now, a year later, we’re closing the circle. Backchannel is joining forces with our sister publication. Starting June 21, we will begin publishing Backchannel as a weekly digital magazine on wired.com. As players in a news cycle that’s rapidly approaching light speed, we believe our work will stand out more as a weekly event — an occasion — than as yet more fodder for the daily churn. And now we’ll be hosted on WIRED's site, rather than on Medium. We will still be editorially independent, of course, and our staff is unchanged.
What does this mean for you? Things are about to get a lot better. We’ll still bring you our signature brand of informed writing by us and opinionated pieces by insiders like Karen Wickre and Susan Crawford. But now we’ll work even more closely with our Wired colleagues to produce meaningful stories, and to distribute them across all the platforms where readers look for informed commentary on technology’s growing impact on our lives.
Okay, but why are we leaving Medium? The short answer is that we love the platform and the thoughtful community that has coalesced around our publication because of Medium. But in the time since Backchannel launched, Medium has shifted its business strategy, and it’s no longer as focused on helping publications like ours profit. To bring you the tech reporting that matters most, we must fund it. Under new editor Nick Thompson, WIRED is committed to figuring out how to make a robust business off of thoughtful, meaty journalism. We share this vision and believe that by bringing our publications even closer together, we’ll be doubling down on Backchannel’s original mission.
You’ll still find us at backchannel.com, as well as on Twitter and Facebook. The best way to stay informed, however, is to sign up to receive Backchannel weekly in your inbox.
Last, a note of thanks. Backchannel has come to life because of you. Your comments, highlights, and story ideas have pushed our thinking and transformed our publication into a collaborative endeavor. We look forward to bringing you many more stories you’ll love in the months to come.
Along with senior editor Alexis Sobel Fitts and editorial associate Miranda Katz, we remain gratefully yours —
Jessi, Steven, and Sandra
