Valleywag: Red Herring

Oh, Canada? Red Herring postpones event from May to June to September

Owen Thomas — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:00:00 PDT

With constant staff turnover and an eviction from its offices, at this point it would be more surprising if Red Herring managed to put together an event at all. Its Canadian startup showcase was originally scheduled for this week; citing a conflict with a Canadian venture-capital conference, the Herring moved it to June. Publisher Alex Vieux missed a poorly attended "introductory cocktail" party for the event in March; his staff put his absence down to a missed flight connection. Now the event has been rescheduled for September — the same month as the Herring's hastily postponed wireless conference in Beijing, and its Asia conference in Hong Kong. Vieux will have plenty of opportunities to miss flight connections — if any of the events happen at all.

Red Herring website outage an unfortunate coincidence

Owen Thomas — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:20:00 PDT

Alex Vieux's Red Herring isn't just poorly managed; it's unlucky as well. I just got off the phone with Vassil Mladjov, CEO of Blogtronix, the blog-software company which hosts RedHerring.com. He blames the site's outage — which comes the same week as the Herring's eviction from its offices and the cancellation of a Herring event in China — on a bug involving log files, and says the site will be back up shortly. Mladjov adds that unpaid bills aren't the issue; Blogtronix arranged to get paid through a barter deal.

Red Herring cancels China event with one week's notice

Owen Thomas — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:40:00 PDT

Red Herring's magazine has not been regularly printed in ages. Today, its its website has been displaying error messages — not that readers are missing much of the understaffed RedHerring.com's output. Herring's conference business alone has been sustaining Alex Vieux's rocky tech-publishing empire. But that, too, seems to be falling apart. A commenter has posted what he claims is an email from Vieux announcing the cancellation of next week's Red Herring Wireless conference in Beijing. At first it struck me as ludicrous that Vieux would cancel one of his cash-cow events. But I called the host hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Beijing, and staff there confirmed that the event was off. Vieux's email cites "difficult personal family health problems" as the reason. If true, it is most unlucky for Vieux that these health issues just happened to coincide with an eviction from Herring's Belmont headquarters.

Dear XXXXXXXX
A number of difficult personal family health problems have led me to make a few hard choices related to Red Herring Wireless.

Indeed, for the first time in nineteen years, I have decided to postpone an event. Red Herring Wireless has been rescheduled to the mid September in Beijing - we will notify you of the exact date in the coming weeks.

In Beijing this month we had assembled a unique group of exceptional players who have managed to play an instrumental role in defining the wireless sector. Telstra, China Mobile, eAccess and many others committed to join us. We trust that we will manage to see them again in September.

We will contact you in the next weeks and I look forward to working with you. I appreciate your understanding and I trust we will speak soon,

With kindest regards,

Alex Vieux
CEO

Did Red Herring employees break into their old office?

Owen Thomas — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:00:00 PDT

A call to Red Herring publisher Alex Vieux through his old office line, 650 428 2900, was answered today by a man with an Eastern European accent who said Vieux wasn't there. Why was anyone there to answer the phone? Yesterday, the Herring's landlord sent a locksmith, an attorney, and sheriff's deputies to evict Vieux from the building, prompting a hasty exit. Vieux claims he has a new office, but wouldn't give out its address. If so, it's possible Vieux had the phone line forwarded there. But it's also possible, a former employee says, that Herring employees broke into their former office: "I wouldn't be shocked if Vieux & Co. just went in through one of the side doors that is not well secured." Wouldn't that be trespassing, though?

Startups brag about homeless Herring honor

Owen Thomas — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:00 PDT

The news of Red Herring's eviction from its office has not given the Valley's PR machine even a momentary pause. At last count, 89 press releases have hit Google News touting some startup's listing on the Red Herring 100 North America. What none disclose: Whether they paid Red Herring to be included on the list. Several companies have told Valleywag that publisher Alex Vieux emailed them after naming them as "finalists" for the Herring 100, suggesting that they buy event tickets or pay for a promotional video. Vieux's landlord must be flabbergasted that despite these surely lucrative quid-pro-quo awards, Vieux still wasn't able to pay his rent.

Alex Vieux to publish Red Herring from undisclosed location

Owen Thomas — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:20:00 PDT

The delusional Alex Vieux's powers of spin are prodigious. He has characterized the eviction of Red Herring, his tottering tech-publishing enterprise, from its Belmont office to News.com as an "economic decision." An economic decision which involved a locksmith, the landlord's attorney, and assorted sheriff's deputies. Normally, working out a rent dispute doesn't require officers of the peace. Were Vieux to be convicted of a crime and jailed, would he describe his sentence as a "period of voluntary seclusion"? (We speak theoretically, of course.) He also told News.com that he had secured a new office, but would not say where it is.

Sheriff's deputies evict Red Herring from Belmont office

Owen Thomas — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:40:00 PDT

Red Herring, the once-storied, now marginal tech publisher, was evicted from its Belmont office at 19 Davis Drive at 3:04 p.m. today, a spokesman for the San Mateo County Sheriff's office confirmed to Valleywag. This is a phenomenal comeuppance for publisher Alex Vieux, who has heretofore displayed an amazing ability to dodge creditors and talk his way out of paying bills. We're told that employees left through the back door and gathered in the parking lot, hoping that the sheriff's deputies would not confiscate their laptops, too.

One hopes those laptop's batteries were charged. A source tells us PG&E was also preparing to shut off the Herring's electricity over an unpaid power bill.

In this clip filmed at a recent Red Herring conference Vieux bragged about firing unproductive employees, and scolded entrepreneurs for not doing the same. What would he say about a CEO who doesn't pay rent on his employees' offices?

Hard-up Herring shakes down startups

Owen Thomas — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:00:00 PDT

At Red Herring, every startup is a winner — but publisher Alex Vieux is the one who takes the prize. Indeed, handing out prizes seems to be the main way Vieux is keeping it afloat. The once-vital technology publisher, which Vieux has all but run into the ground, no longer prints a magazine. A tipster says healthcare for its workers has been cancelled for nonpayment. Its website, which used to mostly carry wire copy, now produces a pitiful handful of stories each day. But the Herring is still flopping around with an events business. The next one, Red Herring 100 North America, due to be held in San Jose later this month, will celebrate 100 startups of Vieux's choosing. And how does he select them from a list of 204 finalists? A come-on email and phone call one startup received is revealing:

In short, Vieux pressures his "finalists" to attend the conference and pay $7,500 for a video interview. (No wonder his videographers quit all at once, citing interference from the business side of the Herring.) What's really shameful is that executives like Google's David Lawee and Microsoft's Dan'l Lewin lend their names to this farce.

Red Herring video team quits en masse

Owen Thomas — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:40:00 PDT

Why is Red Herring hiring five videographers for its already launched Red Herring TV? Because the current team, led by journalist Sean Wolfe, pictured here mid-interview, quit on publisher Alex Vieux. The mass resignation was prompted by another one of Vieux's tirades, but Wolfe and his colleagues also cited erratic pay and a decline in journalistic standards. Their claim: Vieux was trying to turn the video group into a production house for promotional clips custom-made for event sponsors. Anyone thinking about taking the video gig at Red Herring TV would do well to read their resignation letter:

The video team and I are departing collectively today, April 1. Our reasons are as follows:
a) With the exception of yesterday, late paychecks over the past quarter, and before, have resulted in bounced check fees, late rent fees, and other financial issues that have cost the team collectively thousands of dollars.

b) Management's failure to adequately inform the staff of late paychecks (ie, with sufficient notice to make alternate arrangements) has been consistent.

c) Utilizing video team members as assistants to interns is both demeaning, and not what they were hired to expect.

d Recent repackaging of videos as value-added bonuses to conference registration raises substantial conflict of interest issues — ie, pay-for-play, as opposed to the post-sales of rebroadcast rights, which was more ethically defensible.

e) The defaulting on dental insurance since last September has left team members owing thousands of dollars for dental treatments received during the uncovered period.

f) Promises on the part of management for additional equipment and resources have forced team members to spend out of pocket for supplies, repairs, and miscellaneous expenses which, in light of how tardy paychecks have been, have little chance of being reimbursed in a timely fashion.

g) Personal and profane attacks by the CEO against video team members for taking previously scheduled vacation time, including accusations of lying or dishonesty, threats of violence or termination, have been appreciated, and contribute to a hostile work atmosphere.

h) Ongoing financial difficulties (IRS woes, threats of eviction) have supplemented an already-challenging working atmosphere.

Finally, it appears the business is undergoing a significant change from being a media company to an events company that occasionally produces events-oriented media, typically in the form of promotion. When we were hired, individually, and collectively, it appeared that the Red Herring company was actively engaged in expanding its media reach. This fundamental change in orientation compromises journalistic ethics, and the kinds of programming we will likely be called upon to create in the near, and for the foreseeable future.

Over the past year, the video team has single-handedly constructed and manned a fully-functioning greenscreen studio, evolved live-broadcast capabilities, and produced more than 300 CEO, venture capitalist, and market leaders. We regret that this low-cost, high volume capability has not been better leveraged to realize revenue on behalf of the organization, without violating fundamental journalistic tenets.

Our resignations, collectively, and individually for Sean Wolfe, Anthony Nielsen, Ryan Velasquez, Jamie Yee, and Si Lee, are effective immediately.

The undersigned,

Sean Wolfe

Anthony Nielsen

Ryan Velasquez

Jamie Yee

Si Lee

-30-

Red Herring owes the taxman $2 million, ex-employees say

Owen Thomas — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:00:01 PDT

The longevity of troubled tech publisher Red Herring was a mystery until one ex-employee enlightened me: Publisher Alex Vieux simply doesn't pay his bills. What a brilliant way to achieve positive cash flow! Alas, Vieux has encountered a creditor who won't be stiffed: the IRS. The agency is looking into Vieux's Herring for what may be $2 million in unpaid payroll taxes, ex-employees who have been contacted by investigators have told me. Vieux is experienced at dodging the taxman: Farley Duvall, a longtime lieutenant, told colleagues he'd fled French police seeking to seize company documents in Paris, and drove in the middle of the night to Switzerland, where he rebuilt the Herring's European operations. Now Swiss authorities are asking questions about — you guessed it — unpaid taxes. But it's the American taxman who may put Vieux behind bars.

The IRS has stepped up efforts to crack down on unpaid payroll taxes in recent years. This form of fraud hurts both employees, who may be on the hook for monies withheld from their paychecks but never sent to the government, as well as taxpayers. The IRS can press charges against not just the company but top officials as well; the corporate veil, a legal concept which protects officers and directors from the actions of a corporation, does not apply here, I'm told.

That likely explains why Red Herring reported last year that half its board members had quit. David Chao, the cofounder of VC firm Doll Capital Management, still serves on the board, according to his online biography. Is his reputation worth a continued association with the Herring? Vieux can be charming and persuasive. Perhaps he kept Chao and other board members in the dark.

If the IRS investigation concludes that the Herring didn't pay its taxes, its directors have an unpleasant choice: Confess to complicity in the fraud, or admit that they were among the many Vieux has duped. Embarrassing as it would be, I'd suggest they go with the latter. They'd have plenty of company.

Work for the Red Herring? Hope you don't get a toothache

Owen Thomas — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:21:55 PDT

Paying bills is for the little people. Not Alex Vieux, publisher of the Red Herring, who has left a trail of stiffed vendors behind him — hotels, software makers, and consultants. The latest to go unpaid: Red Herring's dental and vision insurance plan. A former employee still getting benefits through COBRA tells us that on a visit to his eye doctor, he was told he no longer had coverage. A plan administrator told the ex-Herring that even though his COBRA bills had been paid on time, Red Herring hadn't paid the insurers — so forget seeing dentists or optometrists. For now, Red Herring's current and former employees still have regular medical coverage, but that's it. Oh, and what's this we hear about unpaid taxes? A sick business indeed.

Red Herring still trying to staff up?

Jordan Golson — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:57:47 PST

A tipster tells us that he was approached by Red Herring to work as a reporter from his "home office," probably something similar to the job listed on the Herring website for a wireless reporter. He turned the job down very quickly, but says that he later talked to the fellow who ended up taking the job who was having "difficulty" getting paid. No surprise there, given the "difficulties" the magazine has had recently. "What pissed me off most was that they were approaching people when they had to know they were in such financial straits."

Red Herring promises a really fake cover

Owen Thomas — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:20:21 PDT

Mobile Rules, a business-plan competition for wireless startups, is promising winners the ultimate booby prize: their photo on the cover of Red Herring magazine next March. One small problem: With printing and distribution bills reportedly unpaid, the Herring has given up on the paper-magazine business. An online-only magazine cover somehow seems unsatisfying. But give Herring publisher Alex Vieux this much credit: It's a very economical prize.

Red Herring defaults, again

Megan McCarthy — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:39:27 PDT

When Red Herring, the troubled tech publisher, got an eviction notice, editor-in-chief Joel Dreyfuss tried to pass it off as a quirk of publisher Alex Vieux's financial-management strategy. "That's just how Alex pays his bills," said Dreyfuss. Or rather, doesn't pay his bills. Already, Vieux's Herring has been ordered to pay Comerica Bank $180,457 plus interest for an unpaid loan. But now, it looks like he don't even have the time, money, or inclination to dispute his debts. A look at San Mateo County Court records reveals that two recent cases brought against Red Herring, Inc, have been awarded to the plaintiffs in default judgments. In other words, Vieux's legal representatives didn't even bother to show up in court.

The first case, brought by online distribution service Zinio, explains why Red Herring disappeared from both physical stores and Zinio's virtual newsstand this summer. In June, Zinio sued for breach of contract. Red Herring apparently never responded to the complaint. In August, Zinio was awarded a default judgment worth $229,863.07.

The second case, a suit brought by a former employee suing for back wages and unpaid expenses, a total of around $15,500. According to the lawyer for the plaintiff, Red Herring never responded to the initial complaint, and never made a move to settle with the plaintiff. Red Herring was found to be in default regarding this case on September 26. A "proveup" hearing will be scheduled for the ex-employee to present to the judge the cost of damages. Because Red Herring is in default, they will not have the opportunity to respond to the amounts that the ex-employee demands.

We wonder how Dreyfuss will explain these latest financial shenanigans. How the Herring manages to spend money on a new online-video venture, a relaunched website, and a social network, and yet still not pay its vendors or employees the money due them, is a mystery that only grows with every day Vieux's Herring remains open. Where is the cash coming from?

One more down at the Red Herring

Megan McCarthy — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:06:19 PDT

Congratulations to Scott Morrison, the former editor of Red Herring's website, on escaping the troubled publication and landing a new job in the San Francisco bureau of Dow Jones. No matter what they say, Rupert Murdoch has to be a better boss than Alex Vieux, whose mismanagement is driving the once-storied tech-magazine brand into the ground. We suspected he was on to greener pastures when coworkers told us he started missing work, but an announcement on the website of the The Society of American Business Editors and Writers confirms the new position for us. And for the rest of his colleagues, too. Note to Scott, next time you switch gigs, it might be more polite to send out an internal email before your underlings find out via an industry newsletter. Or some scurrilous gossip rag.

A Demo reunion in Palo Alto

Megan McCarthy — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:59:13 PDT

Through her Demo conference, Chris Shipley strands some of the most important people in tech together in the desert and forces them to pay attention to strange new ideas. It's like Burning Man without the playa dust and with much fancier drinks, or so I'm told. The experience is apparently scarring enough to bond people for life, judging by the palsy-walsy crowd of past Demo participants and guests who crowded into Palo Alto's Zibibbo restaurant Tuesday night to mingle and mix with other "alumni."

All of these parties are roughly the same, aren't they? Show up, get your nametag, politely chitchat with people while figuring out if you can use them to further your own ambitions, have a few free drinks, and then go in the corner to whip out your cellphone and send text messages to people you'd rather talk to.

But one thing made it different — the crowd Shipley attracts.

At least the Demo-alumni requirement scared off the worst of the usual crowd of hangers-on. The guests here were mostly entrepreneurs who actually have started a company or two, like Kim Polese, ex-CEO of Marimba, recently seen at last week's LinuxWorld conference, and Munjal Shah, CEO of Like.com, the latest incarnation of Riya. More than a few blogger/journalists personalities appeared, like Oliver Starr, late of TechCrunch offshoot MobileCrunch, currently with TechCrunch rival BlogNation, and new Rupert Murdoch underling Don Clark of the Wall Street Journal, who has an annual tradition of playing the Demo conference with his band.

And then there was a trifecta of Valleywag megafans: John Furrier, CEO of PodTech; Red Herring publisher Alex Vieux; and Barak Berkowitz, CEO of Six Apart. All three were delighted to see "Valleywag" on my nametag. Vieux couldn't wiggle away from me fast enough. "Ask Owen why I can't talk to you," Berkowitz snarled as he stalked away. Yet another example of Six Apart failing to engage in transparent communication, as far as I can tell.

The talk of the party, of course, was the looming shadow of next month's TechCrunch20 conference, the Demo copycat from TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis. Although I wonder if Chris Shipley and the rest of the Demo team should be as worried about the upstart conference as Arrington and Calacanis would like them to be. As one partygoer put it to me: "You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Chris has a lot of imitators, like that one guy, oh, I'm blanking on his name ... TechCrunch ... Arlington, Michael Arlington."

The business side of Red Herring bleeds

Owen Thomas — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:14:41 PDT

To date, I've mostly told you about the mayhem on the masthead of Red Herring, the troubled tech publication whose finances are so dire that it recently received an eviction notice. And sure enough, there have been further departures since our last report. But the business side, it seems, is in equal disarray. David Dolnick, a longtime right-hand man of Herring owner Alex Vieux. Dolnick ran the conferences business for Vieux, and, rumor has it, acted as a "fixer" for all kinds of matters on Vieux's overseas trips. Also gone: Herring president Gordon Haight, who headed up sales. With both conferences and ad sale in disarray, the Herring's next payroll run should be, as they say, quite interesting.

Red Herring can't update its masthead fast enough

Owen Thomas — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:37:35 PDT

I'm sure that for people at Red Herring, the troubled tech publication that has difficulty paying its bills, updating its masthead has long been the lowest priority. The list of staffers has seemed out of date every time I've checked. It has changed recently, I note — but not fast enough to track of the latest round of departures. Red Herring board members got an eyeful of the shrinking masthead when they arrived at the office last Friday and were greeted by a nearly empty newsroom. Even people still on payroll — whatever "payroll" means at the Herring — are often absent, ostensibly for "health reasons" (translation: job interviews). After the jump, a list of the fish who we hear have jumped out of the pond — or are trying to do so.

Recent departures no longer on the masthead:

Amy Coombs, Biosciences
Eydie Cubarrubia, Software, Open Source
Kamika Dunlap, Internet: mobile Internet, RH Video
Adena DeMonte, Fundings
Herbert Sample, Venture Capital, Finance

Recent departures still listed on the masthead:

Julie Chao, Senior Editor
Ryan Olson, Gaming

People still listed on the masthead with uncertain status:

Scott Morrison, Editor, RedHerring.com
We hear he's missed a lot of work recently.
Joel McCormick, Features Editor
"Technically there."
Falguni Bhuta, Software, Open Source
She's only been back in the office a couple of times since returning from leave, sources say.
Scott Martin, Venture Capital, Finance
Also missing a lot of work recently.
Cassimir Medford, Telecom, Wireless
May now be on freelance status — and it's not clear if he's getting paid.
Leah Messinger, Internet: social networking and general news
May be leaving shortly.
Andrea Quong, Cleantech
Looking for work, expected to leave soon.
Ken Schachter, Finance
Also may be on freelance status, with pay uncertain.
Marisa Taylor, Tech Culture
Missing work periodically, looking for a new job.
Sean Wolfe, Security, Defense, Space
Word is that Wolfe has moved from writing to a production role on a new online-video project.

Also uncertain:

All of the international bureaus; it's not clear whether the Herring is paying any of them.

New hire:

Mira Schwirtz, General News
Mira, we at Valleywag applaud your bravery.

Someone else thinks the Herring is fishy

Owen Thomas — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:00:43 PDT

An idea so brilliant, we hate its creators for coming up with it before we did. Some mischief-makers have launched Dead Herring, a "parody of business" mocking Red Herring, the Silicon Valley tech publication. Flopping around like a fish gasping for air in its efforts to stay in business, the Herring is clearly making enemies — first and foremost the companies and writers it's apparently stiffed. An amusing anecdote: According to the site, the Herring named Text 100 as a conference sponsor without consulting the PR agency first. That's going to make for an interesting collections call.

Red Herring announces nonexistent digital edition

Owen Thomas — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:18:43 PDT

Olive Software, a Santa Clara-based company that may, quite possibly, be almost as badly run as the Red Herring, has teamed up with the troubled tech publication to announce a Herring digital edition. It's supposedly a faithful copy of the print Red Herring, which has been missing from newsstands for month. Unsurprisingly, there's no link to the digital edition in the press release, and it's nowhere to be seen on the Red Herring website. "Viewing Red Herring on the Web is now as compelling and easy as reading the magazine in print," Olive boasts. True enough. Neither one can be found by readers. And I suspect neither one really exists, excepts in Herring owner Alex Vieux's fevered imagination.

Red Herring displays its ignorance

Owen Thomas — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:27:06 PDT

Still on deathwatch, Red Herring, the once-storied tech publication, is displaying its straitened circumstances even in its copy. The few articles on its website that aren't Reuters wire stories seem to be written by a skeleton crew, with equally skeletal thought behind them. Take, for example, Cassimir Medford's puff piece on Ooma, the also-doomed VOIP startup. Medford, ostensibly Red Herring's "telecom and wireless reporter," includes this doozy:

The name Ooma was chosen because it invokes curiosity, Mr. Frame said. Also it has four letters and the IP address was readily available.

Here's what's wrong with that — and what it shows is wrong with the Herring.

A domain name, of course, is the user-friendly address you type into a Web browser, like "redherring.com." An IP address, on the other hand, is a series of numbers like "65.206.214.61," assigned to a machine connected to the Internet, used by other machines to look it up. A telecom reporter who doesn't know the difference between an IP address and a domain name, writing about a startup which fundamentally misunderstands its market. They sound well-matched.

I don't mean to pick on Medford, of course. The error isn't a reflection on him as much as it is on his bosses. At a stable, well-funded publication, I'm sure he'd do well as a junior reporter learning the beat under the tutelage of experienced editors. And he'd be getting a steady paycheck, to boot. At the Herring, of course, he's managed, if at all, by Joel Dreyfuss, an editor-in-chief who's distracted by efforts to save the company from owner Alex Vieux's financial mismanagement. With sloppily reported, poorly edited stories like this, though, I'd ask which will die first: The Red Herring brand, or the company which owns it?

Om Malik's fishy hires

Owen Thomas — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:15:04 PDT

For Earth2Tech, the new green blog from GigaOm, founder Om Malik has hired Adena DeMonte away from the Red Herring, the struggling publication we've put on a deathwatch. That's got to be the last straw for Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss (pictured, right). Rumor has it that Dreyfuss at one point told Malik to stop poaching the Herring's best writers. Malik, of course, is a former Herring writer, but the publication in its current form and under current management bears no relationship, aside from the name, to the storied tech magazine Malik worked for earlier in this decade. Why Dreyfuss feels Malik's not entitled to fish in his pond is a mystery to me — unless it's just a sign of his general frustration with trying to bail out a sinking ship.

Brian Caulfield catches Valleywag, red-handed, ...

Owen Thomas — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:39:23 PDT

Brian Caulfield catches Valleywag, red-handed, committing an act of journalism in pursuit of the Red Herring story. [Forbes.com]

Death of a salesforce, redux

Owen Thomas — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:43:31 PDT

Last week, as we continued Red Herring's deathwatch, we got a particularly vivid tale of one salesman's departure from the troubled tech publication. But now, another eyewitness tells us we missed the salesman's best line, as he and Herring owner Alex Vieux nearly came to blows over a withheld commission check. "Go ahead, put your hands on me," the salesman reportedly told Vieux. "It will be the best business decision you ever made." Vieux, of course, kept his record of achievement intact: the pair never actually came to blows.

Red Herring faces possible eviction

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:50:57 PDT

That emergency Friday-night meeting at Red Herring, the once-storied tech publisher we've had on deathwatch for what seems like endless months? The agenda was to discuss, an informant tells us, an eviction notice, giving the greatly diminished Herring three days to pay rent or vacate its Belmont, Calif. premises. All employees packed up their personal belongings — presumably out of a fear that, come Monday, they wouldn't be able to get back in to fetch them. And where was owner Alex Vieux? In meetings, most of the day, with Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss — who, we imagine, like most of the staff, is curious when he'll next be paid. Or if.

The meetings will continue until morale improves

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:04:20 PDT

We now hear that the remaining sales and finance employees of Red Herring are locked in a meeting in the company's Belmont, Calif. headquarters. A meeting, one should note, that only got started at 5:30 p.m. On a week that most of the Valley took as a holiday. Well, that should boost the spirits of workers at the troubled publication. Also, we understand that Adecco, a staffing company, has pulled out all of its contractors working at the Herring. Could that have anything to do with Alex Vieux's reputation as a tardy payer?

When all else fails, launch a social network

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:38:02 PDT

Red Herring, the print magazine, no longer publishes. RedHerring.com, the website, is on its last legs, running Reuters wire copy and the occasional blog post. Red Herring's conference business, too, is in disarray, with cut-rate tickets being issued for last month's Red Herring East to fill seats, and the host hotel cancelling next month's Red Herring Japan. So what does owner Alex Vieux do? Why, launch a social network, of course. (Even that idea's not original: The old Herring had ambitions, pre-bubble, for a similar site called Herringtown.) Valleywag has an exclusive screenshot of the not-ready-for-primetime site, called RH27, after the jump. There's not much to the site, whose developers apparently have been "working non-stop" since April, yet have nothing more to show for that time than announcing their choice of development tools and picking the as-yet-meaningless "RH27" name. Their suggestions: "Rapid Hit? Really Hip for 27 seconds?" Our suggestion: "Ridiculously Hopeless."

Death of a salesforce

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:42:30 PDT

Outside its Belmont, Calif. headquarters, the Red Herring's standard flaps stolidly in the breeze. All seems quiet. There's no sign of the fireworks that went off Thursday afternoon in the dying publication's offices. That's when a salesman, realizing he'd been stiffed on his commission, nearly got into fisticuffs with Alex Vieux, the diminutive owner of a diminishing media empire. The inside story, from an informant, after the jump. Four Herring salespeople, including the one who was quitting that day, met with Vieux at 4 p.m. on Thursday to discuss the unpaid commissions. Vieux told them he couldn't pay the commissions then, but he promised to pay them personally. When? "Soon," said Vieux — but he wouldn't commit to a date. The departing salesman demanded a check that day. He and Vieux started shouting, Vieux asked him to leave, and then pushed aside an employee to get face to face with his antagonist. "I'll kick your ass if you don't get the hell out of my office," he told him. The salesman, sizing up his opponent, mercifully withdrew. Vieux is well known for demanding that his male employees wear ties. In a gesture of defiance, the salesman took off his tie and wrapped it around his forehead as he gathered his things. Vieux walked by later and said, "It's 5 o'clock, get the hell out." The employee asked, "Do you have a paycheck for me?" Vieux had no answer. The salesman's parting shot: "Goodbye, everyone ... good luck getting your paychecks." That prompted Vieux to rant that his ex-employee was "fucking unprofessional" and that he was "going to kick [his] ass." Reporters in the newsroom cheered the salesman as he left. Witnessed any other messy scenes from the Herring's flameout? Do tell.

Red Herring's cash crunch

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:16:53 PDT

For most folks, Friday is payday. Not so at the Red Herring. Last week, we're told, the swiftly sinking tech publisher barely made payroll. Alex Vieux, the publication's owner, has a long history of paying vendors late, or never. But now he's resorted to shorting his management team, too. No surprise: Since it's no longer bothering to print an actual magazine, labor is the only major cost left for Vieux to cut. But Vieux's minions, for once, are in revolt over the move. Last Friday, a tipster reports, Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss got paid nothing, and other top managers only got paid half their usual amount. As a result, we're told, the VP of biz dev, chief marketing officer, and chief financial officer quit. With top execs getting stiffed, how long before the rank and file also start missing paychecks — and walking out? More on this later today.

Phones dead at Red Herring

Nick Douglas — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:07:05 PDT

NICK DOUGLAS — The silent death of Red Herring continues as the Silicon Valley magazine, now defaulting on a loan, slips into the night. Says a reader: "Another sign of RH's imminent folding? Every number at RH seems disconnected - maybe they didn't pay the bills?"

Red Herring Writers Apply for Credit

rabruzzo — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:43:17 PDT

—Megan McCarthy,
Party Desk, Contributing Writer

Ending a tradition begun with the 2003 re-launch, Red Herring writers will, at long last, get to publicly stroke their egos with bylines beginning on December 4th. This was announced to reporters in a meeting earlier today.

We here at Valleywag are wondering about a few things. Is this considered a bonus? Will they get to see their names in lieu of a raise this year? Also, what, exactly, prompted this change? Rumor has it that the lack of byline was a factor in several writers leaving the magazine, though, for some reason Red Herring doesn't seem to think that they're gone.

After the jump, a list of Red Herring alumni and their current whereabouts.

Here is everyone who used to work on RH but are still listed on their staff page, and where they are now:

Tom Murphy, Editor-in-Chief, RedHerring.com > Whereabouts unknown (to Google)

Bronwyn Barnett, Managing Editor > Affymetrix

Alex Gronke, Defense, Transportation > NovoMetro

Alex Haislip, Venture Capital, Finance > Venture Capital Journal & Private Equity Week

Anna Petherick, Biotech, Pharmaceuticals > The Economist (poor thing, Economist doesn't have a byline either)

Jyrki Alkio, Wireless > SanomaWSOY (Some Finnish magazine, likely covering ice clogs)

Katie Fehrenbacher, Wireless, Gaming > GigaOm

Liz Gannes, Intellectual Property, Online Services > GigaOm

Priya Ganapati, Computer Software, Security > The Street (In two weeks)

Priyanka Sharma-Sindhar, Online Services > NovoMetro

Ucilia Wang, Semiconductors > We didn't bother to look

Nitpick with Mitnick: An ex-con explains the HP snooping fiasco

Nick Douglas — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:31:21 PDT

Liberal bias aside, journalists hate telling a one-sided story, so the Red Herring needed a source sympathetic to Hewlett-Packard's phone-record-snooping chairwoman, Patricia Dunn. Someone who's done their own social engineering. Someone hardcore. And writer Brian Caulfield found one: Kevin Mitnick.

The convicted hacker tells Red Herring how HP got board members' personal phone records through lying and possible felony, why he's sorry for Dunn, and why hope for the paranoid comes from 7/11.

Kevin Mitnick on HP's Hack Attack [Red Herring]

Tony Perkins' embarrassing web stats

Nick Denton — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 07:19:52 PST

To turn around the phrase on its head, on the web, everyone knows you're a dog. The internet may provide anonymity to individuals, but it leaves publishers nowhere to hide. A reader emails in about Tony Perkins, 'creator' and editor-in-chief of AlwaysOn, his news site for venture capitalists and other members of the Silicon Valley elite.

I love Tony Perkins to death, but you could a good smoking gun on how small the traffic to alwayson-network really is, and yet how much "advertisers" pay Tony. It's because it's a "client buy." In other words, Larry Ellison likes writing about himself and reading about his CEO and SV colleagues—and instructs his agencies to include alwayson in proposals. There's nothing illegal or even shady about it—but yet it's a little offputting. Tony has CEOs and VCs pay to write about themselves for a site that is largely read by other CEOs and VCs. It's not a "real media site," whatever that is.

For those of you who don't remember, Tony Perkins used to own Red Herring magazine, in its heyday, during the boom. The Herring was the soulmate of the New Yorker: impressive, as it sat on tables, but a duty rather than a pleasure, and more often bought than actually consumed. The appearance of influence was sufficient, nevertheless, to make the Red Herring, for a brief moment, a gloriously lucrative vehicle of corporate self-promotion. Ah, print.

Perkins' new venture, AlwaysOn, has much the same lumbering style, and business model, playing to the egos of its contributors more than the curiosity of its readers. The one flaw? On the web, everything is measured, including AlwaysOn's readership, which is miniscule, even for a site that calls itself an insiders' network. AlwaysOn: not any dog, but a chihuahua.

Well, Alex Vieux knows women don't wear ties.

ndouglas — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:55:27 PST

Oh, you people are too good to me. I got a tip about Alex Vieux, publisher of Red Herring and founder and CEO of DASAR. Not one, but two tidbits — one for the home, one for the office.

red herring's publisher alex vieux owes $5000 to the private school where his two girls went. he also gave all the male employees at the "new" red herring Burberry ties for Xmas 2005 but gave the female employees (including the his managing editor) nothing.

I'm sure it can't be that straightforward — anyone have the other sides of these stories? E-mail it in.

[Update: Commenter Irina Slutsky says, "listen, if you're gonna have rumors at least get it right! it was Christmas 2004 and Charvet ties!" Well, this changes everything.]