Wired Names Condé Nast Director Scott Dadich New Editor in Chief

Just two weeks after it announced that Chris Anderson was stepping down from the magazine's helm to lead his drone-technology start-up, Wired has officially appointed a successor.

Wired’s parent company and magazine publishing giant Condé Nast said on Friday afternoon that it had named Scott Dadich, its vice president of editorial platforms and design since 2010, as the new editor in chief.

Dadich previously served as the creative director of Wired from 2006 to 2010. Prior to that, he worked as a creative director at Texas Monthly. He is 36-years-old.

“Scott has been at the forefront of the company’s digital innovation for the past three years, developing the design for a digital magazine that has become an industry standard,” Condé Nast editorial director Tom Wallace said in a statement. “His return to Wired, where he served as creative director and won three National Magazine Awards for Design, will ensure that it continues its pace-setting growth.”

The news has spurred mixed reactions due to Dadich’s correspondingly mixed experience. Throughout his career, Dadich has been celebrated for his design chops, but his editorial experience has rarely been placed under similar scrutiny.

In a famous about-face, the New York Observer wrote a fawning piece on Dadich’s work, describing him as the “savior of Condé Nast,” “some sort of combination of Jesus and Pele” and “the new 'it' boy of publishing,” only to reverse its position the following year.

During his tenure at Condé Nast, Dadich is credited with ushering the often industry icon into the digital age with its first slew of iPad apps -- beginning with the tablet edition of Wired itself.

“I’m excited to return to Wired, which has had such a tremendous impact on my life and my career,” Dadich said. “I look forward to finding new opportunities to delight and surprise the Wired community, both with the stories we tell and in the ways in which we tell them.”

Adweek reported that Dadich will fill his new position immediately (his Twitter handle has already been updated with the new information) and move back to San Francisco in January. While Chris Anderson is stepping down from full-time operations, he is expected to remain involved at Wired with an “as-yet determined title at the magazine.”