Rossetto was born and grew up on Long Island, New York. He went to Columbia University as an undergraduate and later returned for an MBA. In the early 1970s, he wrote a novel called Takeover. Several years later, he ghostwrote a book about the making of the film Caligula called Ultimate Porno.
In 1985, Rossetto joined the staff of a translation company in Amsterdam, INK Taalservice. INK launched an English-language magazine in 1987 with Rossetto as editor called Language Technology which covered the language business. The magazine was later renamed Electric Word and sold to a small Dutch media company. It was terminated in 1991 due to insufficient revenue.
In 1992, Rossetto and his partner Jane Metcalfe resettled in the US and raised capital for Wired. The magazine was launched in March 1993, and was greatly admired for its bold design and its coverage of digital culture. While the magazine exuded a counterculture ethos at times -- and was even compared to Rolling Stone as a barometer of the Zeitgeist of the era -- its editorial direction strongly reflected Rossetto's staunch beliefs in libertarian capitalism.
Although Rossetto had vision, he lacked the social and management skills to guide the publishing venture successfully as it grew. As a result, he and Metcalfe were forced out of the company in 2000.
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