Wired Magazine

Wired has a habit of covering things about three years before the rest of the press notices them. Crypto, AI, private space flight, the gig economy, all got long Wired features while they were still dismissed as fringe obsessions. That’s the actual reason to subscribe: not to keep up with tech news, which is free everywhere, but to get a decent early look at what’s coming next.

An issue mixes deep reported features with product reviews and the occasional genuinely strange story, a hacker profile, a biotech lab, whatever rabbit hole the editors have gone down that month. The writing is proper long form journalism, not press release rehashes, and the design is famously good, bold layouts and photography that make it one of the better looking magazines on any shelf.

Who gets the most out of it: anyone working in or near tech, students heading that way, and the person in your life who always wants to explain what’s about to change. It reads better in print than online too. No autoplay adverts, no popups, just the articles as the designers intended them.

At £40 for the year it’s one of the more affordable ways into serious tech journalism, and it makes an easy gift for the hard to buy for. Delivered to your door, no auto renewal, and we’ll give you a nudge before your subscription runs out.