The Productologist

At the end of the summer, Time, Inc. announced their decision to cease publishing a magazine called Business 2.0, which for several years, had chronicled the rise and fall of the New Economy (or the Internet Bubble or New Media or whatever your nom de jour for the years at the end of the last century/beginning of this century was).

Like several other publications of a similar theme (The Industry Standard, Red Herring and for a time, Wired Magazine), Business 2.0 rode the tide of the Internet boom. It covered topics that while not strictly limited to the New Economy (primarily intersections between technology and business issues), it circled Internet topics like vultures over carrion in the desert.

A friend of mine from college introduced me to Business 2.0 in 1999, but I wasn’t immediately impressed. The content relied heavily on the (over-)enthusiasm of the authors and many articles read like thinly-veiled press releases. This is not unique to Business 2.0, but they seemed to have more of it than other publications. The magazine was also packed with ads from all of the Internet bubble companies who were flush with cash and had no idea what to do with it other than throw it into the air.

I initially dismissed the magazine as too much fluff, but the Marketing team at the company I was working at had a subscription, so I would peruse the issues whenever I stopped in to see them. Over time, I began to appreciate some of the insights of both the articles and editorial pieces.

There was still a high level of noise to wade through, but if you were willing to put up with the puff pieces and the sensationalistic writing style, there were little nuggets and gems. The diagrams (many created by a company called xplane) they used to demonstrate business concepts or technology were especially engaging and informative. And I was always fond of the gear recommendations, both from the editors and guests. The work-life articles by Jefferey Pfeffer were always interesting, too.

But enough gushing and blathering. The whole point of this was to provide some context for my next several posts. In my own little homage to Business 2.0, I will be writing some post that reference recent Business 2.0 articles in some way or fashion.

So long Business 2.0. You were a fun date, but I guess you didn’t want to commit to a long-term relationship.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 9:48 pm PT and is filed under Publications.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.