I normally do not write to magazines, but I wanted to give you my feedback on your new format. It blows. Sorry. Let me explain.
Your "Fetish - Play" section had, what, two pages of content? While you claim that the new format is supposed to render more justice to your photography, I found the pics fairly pedestrian compared to what I'm used to seeing in Wired. You placed a full photo of the Mod Vespa scooter in the table of contents, but the article itself had this tiny pic that looked like it had been taken from a brochure and pasted next to the article. There was way too much reliance on illustrations of things instead of photographs. The journalism, however, was still good. But I'm talking strictly style. The magazine overall seemed less edgy, more blah. And I really do not like the new font for your category headings (Start, Fetish, etc.). It looks like a bad 1970's retro script.
See, what initially brought me to your magazine as a regular reader, then subscriber, was the unique layout, the impressive, unusual photography that sometimes made me look twice to really grasp what I was looking at, the heavy focus on unusual and cool tech toys and gear and the effect and meaning of how that tech intersected with our culture. Your February issue just seemed to lose much of that. Normally, browsing through Wired is like scanning edgy eye-candy. Your new format just left me bored. If it ain't broke, why screw with it?
Arman Partamian
