Attack of the Zombies: The Industry Standard Refuses to Die

The Industry Standard was once the technology's biggest trade magazine, and by the late 1990's was a fat, profitable venture some termed "The Bible of the Tech Industry." If you wanted to be a New Economy player, you advertised in it, got your company covered in it, and schmoozed with its staff. At its peak in 2000, 400 employees worked for the magazine, churning out content supporting a yearly total of 7,500 ad pages, a U.S. publishing industry record.

In 2000, the dotcom meltdown began, advertising tanked, and the magazine folded with a loud bang in August of 2001, going into bankruptcy like many of New Economy startups it covered. Its assets were sold at auction and even its Web site became a ghost.

In 2004, an effort was made to revive the franchise, and a Blog section with 21 contributors was launched in August 2004. By January, 2005, these Bloggers had run out of steam, and the site has lain fallow for more than three years; only one article has been posted since that time, in January of 2007.

It's curious that the Standard even remains online. Perhaps whoever owns it hopes that the dotcom market becomes exuberantly irrational again. This may well happen in a few months, if Facebook.com decides to follow through with its crazy plan to do an IPO.