Wired magazine and its publisher

Nick Summers of the New York Observer writes about Wired magazine publisher Howard Mittman and the success that the tech-oriented business magazine has seen this year.

Summers writes, “The 37-year-old is part of a new breed of less bombastic executives at the company after the humbling recessionary plummet in luxury advertising. As a publicist put it, he is ‘big but not Mr. Big‘ (the ballsy Sex and the City character modeled after a Condé publisher).

“In 2010, Mr. Mittman expanded Wired‘s conference business, a profitable venture, and in May, Wired arrived on the iPad, with what is generally considered the first really great magazine app. Advertisers were tickled by tablet extras like video and geolocation (Burberry was impressed enough to buy in—the title’s first luxury fashion client), and consumer sales have hovered just high enough that Condé decreed that its other titles will one by one hit the platform in Wired‘s image.

“The opening of the pop-up store, now in its sixth year, was a chance for Mr. Mittman to celebrate and hobnob. Near the door, he posed for pictures with Matthew Modine, who wore a teal scarf and told Mr. Mittman about his plans for a Full Metal Jacket iPad app. Matthew Settle, who plays the dad on Gossip Girl, told him he loved the magazine. ‘I’m all about technology—nanotech, robotics,’ he said. Did Mr. Mittman think such things could rescue the economy? Mr. Settle also offered a pretty good summary of Wired‘s December cover story about making a latticework of stem cells to create healthy tissue.”