writing » industry standard can't bear it
Another beacon of the 'new economy' has gone dim with e-business magazine The Industry Standard saying it will file for bankruptcy protection, and layoff most of its 180 employees.
A standard bearer for a stable of new technology magazines (Business 2.0, Fast Company, Red Herring and others), the magazine's life cycle mirrored the internet bust and boom. Fat with ad lineage in the late 1990's the Standard would often bloat to well over 200 pages an issue.
With the severe downturn in the advertising market - one that is also choking many of the same dot.com start-ups that used to feed ad revenue to them - many of these magazines are finding it difficult to survive in tough economic conditions.
The Industry Standard is a bellwether of internet economics. Many of the successes and failures of the last few years in 'new economy' ventures expose the closed ecology they existed in. When times were good dot.com workers bought and advertised in the magazines that told their glowing success stories. It was a self-feeding engine.
Editorially the Standard had a more jaundiced eye then most of its brethren, but it still couldn't breathe in a negative atmosphere. Recent issues had dwindled to under 100 pages and advertising revenue was down by 75% from last year.
Fast Company and Business 2.0, which tend more towards e-biz cheer leading in their content, saw their ad revenues fall 47% and 60% respectively, according to the New York Times - the Standard was in tough, and out of operating dough.
Boston-based International Data Group, the Standard's majority owner, decided to stop the bleeding and refused a request for bridge financing earlier this week that would have kept the book on life support.
In a story posted Thursday on its own website thestandard.com, Jonathan Weber, the magazine's editor in chief said: “This is a very sad day for everybody who has helped make the Industry Standard a great publication, we're very proud of what we have accomplished, and we're hopeful that the magazine and the Web site will find a new home.”
“The company will continue to publish its Web site, and will retain a small editorial team while it seeks a buyer. The company likely will file for bankruptcy protection, and most of its 180 employees will lose their jobs,” said the posting.
In the irony laden collapse of new economy ventures, the best coverage has often appeared in the very publications in question - kind of like covering their own funeral.
Earlier this summer entertainment media start-up magazine and website Inside had thorough and incisive coverage of its somewhat hostile merger with Steven Brill's Primedia. Inside attends the Standard's funeral
As the economic realities caught up with the well respected Inside venture, many pixels were spilt over the shotgun marriage to Primedia in Inside's own pages. Writers decried the “culture” of the new parent, and dozens of journalists and editors were shown the door.
In a similar spirit, one Standard staff member told the New York Times that parent I.D.G. never really understood what they did. “We had never fit into the I.D.G. culture. They do trade magazines. We're just culturally different. It was an uneasy relationship”.
As the technology shakeout continues, more voices will be silenced as they collapse under the weight of operating in real world economics, or they will be gobbled up by massive conglomerates.
The end result is less variety, and a leaner and meaner sort of coverage. Pick up an old copy of the Standard from a couple of years ago when the tech fête was at full roar, and it is amazing how very few saw the hangover coming. Well, the party is over, and the clean up crews are getting busy.
