Bubbles, Crashes and Burns: 15 Lessons from 10 Years Ago

Inside.com, launched May, 2000, was owned by Powerful Media, whose backers (to a total tune of $35 million) included Flatiron Partners and Chase Capital Partners. The biweekly print version launched in December, 2000. Then a series of complicated things happened: Steve Brill bought it, for, in part, maybe $8 million in cash. Brill made a marriage to Primedia; six months later, that partnership “unwound.” Soon enough: donezo. That’s the short version; try the long one. But just like the xoJane launch party last week, Courtney Love also attended the Inside.com launch party! If those eyes could talk!

Here are some of our favorite headlines from the glory days of ten years ago, after half the staff was laid off, and the publication began to be stuffed with content from sibling publications. Picture it! 2001. So many questions to grapple with. How will newspapers survive? How will people make money on the web? Will reality TV take over the networks?

September 28, 2001
Electronic Publishing vs. the Land of the Free
In preparation for a meeting of minds at next month’s Frankfurt Book Fair, it’s time to ask: With the abundance of free material available on the Web, how will writers and publishers get paid?

September 30, 2001
Contentville Closes Its Books
Contentville, Steven Brill’s e-commerce concept for selling everything from books and magazines to transcripts and Ph.D essays, was shut down on Friday and its 15 employees laid off.

October 15, 2001
Al-Jazeera, All the Time
With the only broadcast news bureau in Afghanistan and exclusive footage of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the Al Jazeera network has heightened its presence on global satellite systems. But criticism from the Colin Powells of the world that the network can be a soapbox for extremists may slow its much-needed revenue growth.

October, 2001
Struggling Primedia Woos Employees With Stock Options

October 15, 2001
Inside.com and Brill’s Content to Close — This Time We Really Mean It
Awkward marriage between polar opposites on the hipness spectrum ends, as relationship between Steven Brill and Primedia unravels. 38 lose their jobs.

October 17, 2001
Who Watches Reality TV?
American Demographics While some media experts believe reality television will alter the topography of TV land, others are sure this season will mark the beginning of the end of the genre. Of course, the viewing public — nearly 50% of all Americans — will cast the ultimate vote.

October 25, 2001
Premium Channels Boosting Production of Their Own Movies
Premium networks, including Showtime and HBO, are aggressively moving ahead with plans to pump up the ever-growing pool of popular original films and series, despite recent cutbacks from other networks and production companies.

October 26, 2001
Geeks Rule At Comedy Central
Comedy Central is making rich fare out of bland ingredients.

November 2, 2001
The News Internationalist
Hard news is back, and for that Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker is glad. As the country heads to battle against a shadowy foe, the 20-year veteran of the newsmagazine relishes the chance to draw the attention of his readers back to foreign affairs.

November 2, 2001
High Speed Slows Down: New Media Technology Hits a Wall
It’s not just the media economy that’s receding. According to new findings from a consumer tracking study, so is the adoption rate of new media technologies, including broadband and dial-up Internet access and cell phones.

November 9, 2001
Newspapers Feel the Heat
With a weak advertising market further pulled down by the events of Sept. 11, the third quarter of 2001 proved to be one of the toughest for newspaper companies, with average revenues and cash flow losses for public companies.

November 16, 2001
Cyberspace Redefines its Concept of Advertising Space
The New York Times Co. on Thursday introduced a new online advertising unit that could fundamentally alter the way advertisers and agencies value and plan online media. Instead of selling traditional banner ads posted on disconnected Web pages, the Times’ Internet unit will offer advertisers the opportunity to follow specific users through their actual user session — or series of page views — on the NYTimes.com site.

November 30, 2001
Agencies Say Tsk, Tsk, Tsk to Would-Be Manager of Media Risk
This year began with a major outside player announcing plans to enter the ad business in a way that would have supplanted a key role of media agencies: to hedge advertisers’ risks in the media marketplace. As the year winds down, it is now clear that player, Enron, could not even manage its own risks.

December 11, 2001
Recession? There’s a Recession?!
Think the ’90s were the decade of superstore expansion? That was just the beginning. Build, build, build continues to be the mantra for the nation’s biggest book chains, which plan to keep up, or even accelerate, their pace of superstore expansion in the coming year.

December 17, 2001
Yahoo! Grasps at Profitability
With a combination of cost-cutting measures and new paid services, Yahoo! is trying to get to profitability as quickly as possible, despite inclement economic weather.