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Another One Bites the Dust

InfoWorld, one of the first IT trade magazines I started getting way back before Metcalfe was predicting giant Internet collapses , is folding up shop, another victim of the migration of this sort of material online. Really, what use is a weekly news magazine that contains 30% press releases when you can get those same releases online the day they come out, and your tech news as it happens? I stopped getting InfoWorld several years ago when I realized that it and 17 other magazines got read 1 issue out of every 4 and I'd have fifty pounds of recycling every month. I now get one trade and even that may go away.

The most-read elements of these magazines were the occasional feature and the columnists. Most columnists have their own site and make their own ad revenues, albeit probably not the same level of money unless they're really popular.

The only thing I'll miss is that there's a level of editorial control and breadth in trades that doesn't come across from RSS feeds and blogs. I expect someone will figure out the right way to pay reporters and provide industry-related journalistic content online. In the meantime, I'll surf and randomly pick from my del.ico.us links and RSS feeds to keep the diversity of input up. Otherwise I'll end up like people who read Cat Fancy and nothing else. Catminster anyone?

Labels: news

Posted by Mark Monday, March 26, 2007 8:45:00 PM | permalink |