Jane Metcalfe

Jane Metcalfe is an American media entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former president of the groundbreaking Wired magazine, a seminal publication that chronicled and shaped the rise of the digital revolution in the 1990s. Alongside co-founder Louis Rossetto, she launched the magazine in 1993, creating a cultural and journalistic institution that became synonymous with the Silicon Valley ethos and the emergence of the World Wide Web. Her leadership in building the Wired brand extended into early digital ventures, including the launch of the pioneering website HotWired, which was instrumental in defining early online advertising and web publishing.

Early life and education

Jane Metcalfe was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and spent part of her youth in Brussels, Belgium, where her father worked for the United States Department of Defense. She attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studied French and International relations. After graduating, her early career path took her to New York City, where she worked in various roles, including a position at a public television station, before moving to San Francisco and becoming immersed in the burgeoning technology scene of the late 1980s.

Career

Prior to launching her landmark venture, Metcalfe worked in media and production, including a stint at the Whole Earth Catalog-inspired magazine Signal, where she first collaborated with future partner Louis Rossetto. Her business acumen was further honed through work with various startups and independent publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area. This experience in the intersection of publishing, technology, and counterculture provided the foundational insights that would lead to the creation of Wired, positioning her to manage the magazine's explosive growth and complex business operations from its inception.

Wired magazine

In 1993, Metcalfe and Rossetto, with backing from investor Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab, launched the first issue of Wired from a small office in San Francisco. As president, Metcalfe oversaw all business operations, marketing, and circulation, building the magazine into a highly profitable and influential voice. She was instrumental in the 1994 launch of HotWired, one of the first commercial websites, which featured original content and introduced the first banner ads for major clients like AT&T. Under her leadership, the company expanded rapidly, launching Wired Books, the Wired News service, and the short-lived Wired TV project. The success of the magazine culminated in its acquisition by Condé Nast in 1998, a deal in which Metcalfe played a key negotiating role before departing the company soon after.

Post-Wired ventures

Following her exit from Wired, Metcalfe has remained an active investor and advisor in the technology and media sectors. She co-founded TCHO, a San Francisco-based fair trade chocolate company focused on innovative production techniques, applying a tech-startup mentality to the food industry. She has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Long Now Foundation, which fosters long-term thinking, and the X Prize Foundation, which designs public competitions to spur innovation. Metcalfe is also a founding partner of Neo.com, a venture aimed at investing in and nurturing mission-driven companies at the intersection of technology and society.

Personal life

Jane Metcalfe married Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of the MIT Media Lab and an early investor in Wired, in 1996. The couple resides primarily in New York City and maintains strong ties to the global technology and academic communities. An avid supporter of the arts and sciences, she is involved with various philanthropic and cultural institutions, including the Santa Fe Institute, a research center dedicated to the study of complex systems.

Category:American magazine publishers (people) Category:Wired (magazine) people Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Businesspeople from Indianapolis Category:University of Colorado Boulder alumni