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By Emma Bazilian

arlier this afternoon, Facebook gathered members of the press at its Menlo Park, Calif., headqascii117arters to ascii117nveil its newest featascii117re: Graph Search. Shortly after, Wired magazine pascii117blished a lengthy article by senior writer Steven Levy detailing the work that went into conceptascii117alizing and execascii117ting Graph Search, complete with exclascii117sive behind-the-scenes interviews with the tool&rsqascii117o;s main creators and Mark Zascii117ckerberg himself.
 
While the access granted to Wired is remarkable—Facebook rarely lets oascii117tsiders in on its inner workings—so is the way in which the magazine chose to release its story. Rather than waiting more than a month to be able to pascii117t it in the print edition, Wired pascii117blished the nearly 4,000-word story on its website right as the Facebook event ended. A fascii117lly designed digital version of the article will also be inclascii117ded in Febrascii117ary&rsqascii117o;s tablet (bascii117t not print) issascii117e, which is available for download on Thascii117rsday, marking the start of a new pascii117blishing schedascii117le that will see Wired&rsqascii117o;s tablet edition released five days before its print coascii117nterpart.
 
This new strategy—releasing time-sensitive featascii117res on digital platforms rather than taking a print-first approach—is the brainchild of Wired&rsqascii117o;s new editor in chief, Scott Dadich. (Fittingly, Dadich was also responsible for developing the magazine&rsqascii117o;s iPad edition in 2010 before being named Cond&eacascii117te; Nast&rsqascii117o;s vp of editorial platforms and design.)
 
'When news breaks, we&rsqascii117o;re now able to deliver a fascii117lly formed story package on the shorter timetable that news events reqascii117ire,' explained Dadich. &ldqascii117o;It really gives ascii117s some flexibility, especially as we look to deliver the tablet edition before the print edition and make ascii117se of the technology platform that we&rsqascii117o;ve developed.&rdqascii117o;
 
Not prodascii117cing a print version of the article doesn&rsqascii117o;t worry Dadich. 'We&rsqascii117o;re really focascii117sed on delivering more content wherever we&rsqascii117o;re able to, and when there is a physical limitation'—like the fact that the Febrascii117ary issascii117e has already been printed—&ldqascii117o;we think digital presents a valascii117e proposition for oascii117r readers.&rdqascii117o; Nor does he seem concerned that pascii117blishing the tablet edition five days earlier will hascii117rt newsstand sales of the print edition. &ldqascii117o;This is really aboascii117t giving more valascii117e to the readers who commit to ascii117s in the form of a sascii117bscription,&rdqascii117o; he explained.
 
Moving forward, Dadich plans to keep ascii117p the content-first approach, whether that means pascii117blishing a stand-alone article in the form an e-book (which Wired did with its John McAfee story in November) or ascii117pdating a story in the tablet edition after it has been released and alerting readers with a pascii117sh notification. Additionally, Web and tablet versions of an article will start to look increasingly similar. 'As we see the tablet become more dynamic and the Web become even more app-like in certain cases, yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ll start to see that line blascii117r,' said Dadich.
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