death of print
A tipster writes: "
PC World continued its slide into the trashcan of history yesterday; 6 more employees were laid off yesterday; a couple in art, a couple in editorial and a couple of support staff." The IDG-owned print monthly has held up better than its main rival,
PC Magazine, but beloved editor Harry McCracken
left in May to launch his startup, Technologizer.
Anyone know more?
death of print
International Data Group, the tech publisher, was losing money every time it printed signature title
InfoWorld. After kicking the paper habit,
the title is now making $1.6 million per month in revenue, and approximately $592,000 net profit, the
Times reports:
In 2002, 86 percent of the revenue from IDG's publications came from print and 14 percent online. These days, 52 percent of the revenue is from online ads, while 48 percent is from the print side.
Sure, it serves a technology niche with a well-connected audience and advertisers inclined to turn to the Web. But where technology publishing goes, general interest content is sure to follow, goes the thinking. Only one hole in that theory: CNET.
macworld 2008
IDG's public relations manager let Valleywag into Macworld in force, without requiring us to invoke our connections to print publications. She even forgave me for screwing up my registration. Charlotte, can you toss us out sometime Thursday? We have a reputation to maintain.
media
Could it be true? Eric Savitz of
Barron's blogs about the apparent comeback of his former employer,
The Industry Standard. The weekly tech trade magazine inflated, and imploded, more or less in sync with the dotcom bubble; shuttered by owner IDG, it's seen a series of mostly pathetic attempts to resuscitate its
website, all of which floundered. But the website now promises that the
Standard is "coming back." Odd timing, given Time Inc.'s shuttering of
Business 2.0, and the discontinuation of the
Red Herring's print edition. Founder John Battelle
tersely wishes the new
Standard luck. I'm betting that the publication bypasses print and goes straight to the Web — just like Battelle's
current venture.
deathwatch
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual videogame trade show, was recently downsized from 60,000 attendees to a scant 3,000 or so. Why? Because exhibitors were sick of the exorbitant costs associated with putting together a booth in the cavernous Los Angeles Convention Center, and wanted an insidery event, not one open to all comers. Seeing a void left, IDG Entertainment, publisher of
GamePro and the now defunct
GameStar (a sort of
Maxim for videogames), swooped in to host
E For All. It's a public event, unlike the new E3's restricted-access gathering, and tickets for the four-day show go for $90. There's one problem: Exhibitors have no desire to attend.
More »
Valleywag
e for all
media
Brad Stone of the New York Times has picked up, belatedly, that the Industry Standard, the fast-falling standard-bearer magazine of the dotcom boom, will be reborn as an online-only publication. A source tells us that IDG, the publisher of the new Standard, had pegged a relaunch date in less than a week. One small problem: As Stone points out, IDG has yet to hire an editor-in-chief. In fact, we hear that the initial plan for the website didn't even include a top editor. [Bits]
