Bob Cohn

Athlete, Environmentalist, Idea generator, Journalist, Parent, Student, Writer/Editor

Bob Cohn is the executive editor of Wired Magazine. He oversees all editorial aspects of the magazine, helping to supervise a staff of 40 journalists and dozens of freelancers. During his tenure, Wired won National Magazine Awards for General Excellence in 2005 and 2007. Cohn began his journalism career at Newsweek, where he worked in the Washington bureau for 10 years. He served as the magazine’s legal affairs correspondent, with responsibility for the Supreme Court, the Justice Department, and the FBI, and later was named the magazine’s White House correspondent. He covered the presidency of Bill Clinton from 1993 to early 1996. He left Newsweek to be editor and, later, publisher of Stanford magazine. He also served as editorial director of the Stanford Alumni Association, overseeing the bimonthly magazine, the online department, electronic newsletters, and other communications programs. Starting in January 2000, Cohn worked for nearly two years as executive editor at The Industry Standard, a newsweekly covering the Internet economy. He supervised a staff of writers and editors, planned and edited cover stories, and directed editorial special projects, including the company’s extensions into television, radio, international publishing, and new domestic magazines. He left The Standard for Wired in the summer of 2001. Cohn has won many national awards for his writing and editing. During his tenure at Wired, the magazine has been nominated for eight National Magazine Awards, including the two citations for General Excellence. At Newsweek, where he shared in more than a dozen awards, he was honored with the American Bar Association’s prestigious Silver Gavel Award for coverage of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation process. At Stanford magazine, a story he wrote on the university’s affirmative action policies was named best article of the year in college magazines. The next year, Stanford was named the best university publication in the country by Folio magazine. Cohn graduated from Stanford and earned a master’s degree in the Study of Law from Yale Law School. A native of Chicago, he lives with his wife and two daughters in Northern California.