Condé Nast announced today that Scott Dadich, the publisher’s shining prince and iPad savior, will be the new editor-in-chief at Wired, where he worked as creative director before attempting to save the future of magazines as the company’s vice-president in charge of digital publishing. Dadich, who will replace the outgoing Chris Anderson, was memorably described in the New York Observer as “some sort of combination of Jesus and Pele” (plus Miles Davis and Frank Lloyd Wright) and hailed as “the new It Boy of publishing” before being brought down a few pegs by the same newspaper a year later. “With a talent like Scott,” we were told initially, “magazines will never die.”
Then came the backlash: “Many of the sources who spoke to the Observer [the second time] wondered why, in a city suddenly teeming with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and coders, a print guy like Mr. Dadich was picked to lead the way in the first place.”
A little more than a year later, Dadich is coming home again. “I’m excited to return to Wired, which has had such a tremendous impact on my life and my career,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to finding new opportunities to delight and surprise the Wired community, both with the stories we tell, and in the ways that we tell them.”
