Gawker
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feuds
Do We Need a Restraining Order Against Josh Quittner?
We never imagined Josh Quittner would burn a previous Valleywag editor in effigy, but after seeing the video he's posted on Time.com, we wonder if we might need a restraining order. More » -
death of print
Even Listicles Being Downsized at Fortune
Bad news is still big. It's just the articles that are getting smaller. 2008 was 80 percent less dumb than 2007, according to Fortune! A year ago, Fortune readers were treated to a full 101 moments of dumbness in an end-of-year comic look-back. This year? Only 21 dumb moments to be found.
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By Owen ThomasComment by oldtaku: Yeah, I have to say those 101 moments always had at least a dozen kneeslappers (including a couple I'd somehow... 1 Responses | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
AOL wants to buy TechCrunch at a 70 percent discount to Arrington's nine-figure price tag
Time Warner's AOL and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington have been talking for the past two months, with AOL offering Arrington $20 million to $30 million to acquire tech's most dutiful clearinghouse for startup PR. Kara Swisher says that TechCrunch wants more than $30 million; we've heard he's looking for more like $100 million. Arrington has perpetually shopped his site around; all this deal talk reminds us how, just the other weekend, we overhead him wishing he could just sell out and move to Hawaii. Which makes for a nice pipe dream, but a weak negotiating position. Another reason to be skeptical: This is not Arrington's first flirtation with Time Warner. More »
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Comment by GrantDarnoldo: cmon Calcainis got $30mil from AOL, why wouldn't his good friend Arrington?... more » | Other threads
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yahoo raid
Icahn puffs up Yahoo board nominee's resume
Adam Dell, Michael Dell's younger brother, is a venture capitalist with some successes under his belt, including HotJobs, which Yahoo bought. He'd make a fine Yahoo board member. So why does Carl Icahn feel it necessary to inflate his qualifications? Dell's biography, as supplied by Icahn, claims that Dell "is a contributing columnist to the technology publication, Business 2.0." Not since 2001, in fact, and the magazine itself closed last year.
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By Owen ThomasComment by mozzer: Perhaps it's because Dell's own site ([www.impactvp.com]) claims he's still a B2.0 columnist... and the site looks like it hasn't... more » | Other threads
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exits
Ex-Business 2.0 editor leaves Fortune for Time
Josh Quittner, former editor of the defunct Business 2.0, has extricated himself from his unhappy stay at Fortune by returning to Time, where he previously worked. Tellingly, Time editor Rick Stengel refers to him as a "writer" for Fortune, though he had the ostensible title of executive editor. Stengel's memo is included below. Quittner's new gig is his old gig, covering consumer technology, which takes him back roughly 13 years in the progress of his career. Funny, because we'd heard that Quittner had held serious talks with Michael Arrington about joining TechCrunch, around the same time he wrote a laudatory column about the tech blogger. All that puffery, and no job in exchange? A shame. More » -
conflicts of interest
Fortune columnist fails to disclose Arrington tie
Josh Quittner, the Fortune executive editor who's reportedly plotting his escape from his gilded cage at the magazine, has written a perfunctory profile of TechCrunch blog impresario Michael Arrington. Nothing we haven't read before — including the obligatory paragraph about Arrington's conflicts of interest in writing about startups even as he invests in them. Quittner observes that the practice seems to boost Arrington's reputation in the Valley. One conflict Quittner never mentions: As editor of Business 2.0, where I worked for him, he tried to strike a deal with Arrington to save the magazine by merging it with TechCrunch. The effort failed, landing Quittner at Fortune.
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By Owen ThomasComment by matto: This one time, in 2001, I read an article in B2. Full disclosure. more » | Other threads
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josh quittner
Ex-Business 2.0 editor dumping Fortune for housing blog?
What is Josh Quittner, the former editor of Business 2.0, doing for his next act? Since September, he's had an unhappy career at Fortune, the Time Inc.-owned corporate sibling which took him and a few other refugees from the magazine in. He's been earning what we hear is a mid-six-figures salary playing Scrabulous, and then writing about it. (Actual quote from a recent column: "Clearly, I had too much time on my hands.") The latest I'd heard on Quittner, my former boss, was that he was leaving Fortune to return to Time, where he worked before joining Business 2.0, as its Marin County-based tech correspondent. But he may have another exit strategy in mind. in 2006, Quittner registered roofmagazine.com. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by your creepy uncle: It's funny b/c Business 2.0 cheerled the housing boom even well after it had burst. In fact, their final issue... more » | Other threads
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media
At airports, Business 2.0 refuses to die
Time Inc. has mostly erased Business 2.0 from its CNNMoney website after shutting the magazine down last year. But newsstands across the country, and readers, have not gotten the memo. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by fishneversleep: Oh come on. A tech magazine with a real estate cover at a time when tech is booming? That's just... more » | Other threads
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media
Fortune editor in town to boss ex-B2 staff around
Remember former Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner, whose tech magazine got shut down by parent company Time Inc.? Now an executive editor at Fortune, he outranks, on paper, assistant managing editor Jim Aley — the man he replaced as Business 2.0's editor five years ago. Which makes the following curious: The New York-based Aley, pictured above, is in town this week. Valleywag hears he started off his visit with a breakfast with Quittner. And then Aley met with the remnants of Business 2.0's staff, who now make up Fortune's San Francisco bureau — without Quittner. Remind us again who's in charge here? And if you want your startup written up in Fortune, who's the right guy to schmooze? -
josh quittner
Time Inc. insults Business 2.0 editor one last time
Josh Quittner, the former editor of the late, lamented Business 2.0 — where, I'll disclose, I worked for seven years before joining Valleywag — has gotten one more kick in the pants from Time Inc., the tech magazine's publisher. In a cover wrap sent to subscribers with the last issue, he's listed as the magazine's "managing editor," even though he's always gone by the title of "editor" in the masthead. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by 0x6772: Clearly, Josh simply hasn't yet accepted and owned the first four letters of his surname. more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
TechCrunch and Business 2.0 never managed to merge, but editor Michael Arrington has snapped up former B2 editor-at-large Erick Schonfeld. (This explains why Schonfeld recently revived his dormant blog to cover the TechCrunch40 conference.) Opinionated, arrogant, and whip-smart, Schonfeld is the perfect match for Arrington. We're looking forward to the fireworks at TechCrunch edit meetings — to which Schonfeld will be dialing in remotely from Brooklyn. [Bits]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Blackjack: Just think of the pissing match to come in six months when Erick ditches TC to start his own site,... more » | Other threads
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obituary
The decline and fall of Business 2.0
Did Business 2.0 die a natural death? Or was it murdered? The story told so far about the tech-focused, San Francisco-based magazine's demise was an abrupt drop in advertising. But in his MediaShift column, Mark Glaser suggests that a poorly planned business-side reorganization by its parent company, Time Inc., is more to blame. Combining Business 2.0's salesforce with that of Fortune and Money led not to the expected boost in ads, but a drop that hit all the magazines, with Business 2.0 — where, I should disclose, I worked before joining Valleywag — the most vulnerable. The most intriguing tidbit: Glaser reports that TechCrunch, run by Michael Arrington, explored a merger with Business 2.0. Arrington, in a blog post, confirms the rumor, and, intriguingly, suggests that Time Inc. was "proactive in destroying" the magazine to favor Fortune. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sidhudgens: Also, Fortune is a losing bet. It is flabby, self satisfied lapdog publication. The Carol Loomis/Berkshire scandal is the perfect... more » | Other threads
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housekeeping
Who am I and why am I here?
I'm Evelyn Nussenbaum. It's not an existential question. But in case you're wondering where the lovely and talented Owen Thomas has gone, the answer is Hawaii. With his spouse. Leaving me to fill his extremely large (but stylish) shoes. So who am I? The short answer is that I am a refugee from the late, great Business 2.0 Magazine—ok the October issue is coming out, but it's the last one. This is a collector's item, people! But my stint at the New York Post is probably the most relevant to Valleywag. OK, I was a business reporter, but I sat next to Keith Kelly and across from the King of All Gossip Columnists Richard Johnson—something must have rubbed off. I'll report, you decide. And you don't need to see a picture of me—I look fabulous, especially sitting here in my pj's. -
media
A turnabout for Business 2.0's former boss
Time Inc. has officially announced Business 2.0's closure in an internal memo obtained by Jossip. In it, Time Inc. executive John Squires explains that folding in some of Business 2.0's staff into Fortune will give it "the largest San Francisco bureau of any major business publication." The Wall Street Journal bureau will still be twice its size, but never mind — we assume Squires meant "magazine." No, what's interesting in the memo is what's not said. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @arepb: You mean, a blog like this one? The one Sloan has had for almost a year now? more » | Other threads
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media
Time Inc. sends secret ninja "kill teams" to shut down Business 2.0
We'd already heard that the October issue of Business 2.0 would be the last one published by Time Inc.; now, the New York Times reports on the Bits blog that it will be the last one, period. Talks with Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Fast Company and Inc., apparently failed; as we predicted, Time Inc. did not want to strengthen a competitor. A few staffers will join Fortune and Fortune Small Business. The rest will fall victim to what Bits colorfully calls "kill teams." This being Time Inc., don't expect black-suited corporate operatives. Or anything the least bit colorful. Instead, the teams will likely kill with kindness — and boredom. Time Inc.'s HR presentations — some of which, I should disclose, I sat through as a Business 2.0 employee — are legendary as cures for insomnia.
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By Owen ThomasComment by ChiefCynic: Wait a minute. How can this be? Don't they know about that Facebook group? If Facebook can't save a magazine,... more » | Other threads
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confirmed
Keith Kelly repeats yesterday's Valleywag report that Mansueto Ventures, publisher of rival tech-business title Fast Company, is negotiating to buy Time Inc.'s Business 2.0, which is in the midst of publishing its last issue under the current staff. CNET, rumored to have also bid, has apparently dropped out of the sale process. [New York Post]
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By Owen ThomasComment by ChiefCynic: And you know who the cheif ed of Mansueto is, right. Yup, Loren Feldman. more » | Other threads
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media
Who's bidding on Business 2.0?
The writing is on the whiteboard for Business 2.0, the tech-focused monthly magazine published by Time Inc. (and, I should note, my former employer). The October issue is definitely the last one to be published by the current staff, some of whom have already secured new jobs. But could Business 2.0 live on in some fashion? Time Inc. is ostensibly still entertaining offers to buy the magazine, if only for form's sake. But even if the sale process is a charade, some serious bidders have nevertheless emerged. Who are they? More » -
great moments in pr
Business 2.0 decision coming next week, or not
Folio reports that Time Inc., the parent company of Business 2.0, will be making a decision on the fate of the magazine next week, according to a source. The article, however, then quotes a Time Inc. spokesperson saying that the company "absolutely will not" be making a decision next week. The spokesperson in question is, of course, fibbing flack Danielle Perissi, so take her statement with a very large grain of salt. Heck, store it away in a Morton's warehouse. -
media
Business 2.0 staff faces Fortune-ate fate
There's no official word on the fate of Business 2.0, the Time Inc.-owned magazine where I used to work. The publication, once fated to shut down after its September issue, is still alive, thanks to a hastily granted extension of life support. The staff is working on the October issue, while higher-ups consider offers to buy the magazine that streamed in after word of its impending demise leaked. But they seem to have resigned themselves to the fate of being absorbed into larger sister publication Fortune, based on this sign: A magazine logo near the entrance has been altered to read "Fortune 2.0."
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @fangsta: Thank you, I am enjoying reading the copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that was, as I've... more » | Other threads
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international relations
The French hate Business 2.0
You can count on our froggy friends to scour every word published about them for the slightest sign of discrimination. And indeed, a French blogger has detected what he dubs "l'américanisme 2.0" in Business 2.0's August issue. The magazine's crime against internationalism: Calling France's Facebook and YouTube wannabes "clones" of the vastly more popular American sites, even though the sites in question, Skyrock and Dailymotion, are older than the sites they supposedly copied. More » -
great moments in pr
Meet Danielle Perissi, Time Inc.'s fibbingest flack
An aside: While working on this morning's item about the back-from-the-brink reprieve of Business 2.0, I phoned Time Inc. flack Danielle Perissi, whose ostensible job is to represent the publisher's business titles. As usual, she issued a denial that any changes were afoot. Well, no, that's too kind: I should say, rather that she lied baldfacedly and, what's far worse, unconvincingly about the matter. I don't know why I bothered to call her. Or why colleagues at Time Inc., a company full of journalists with no patience for inept flacks, tolerate her. Oh, right — they don't.
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By Owen ThomasComment by strza: Even the lowliest saprophytes have to eat, like the rest of us. more » | Other threads
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comebacks
Business 2.0 gets a stay of execution
Everyone was expecting Business 2.0, the Time Inc.-owned tech magazine where — full disclosure — I used to work, to shut down this Friday after staffers sent the September issue to the printers. But that is, as of last night, no longer the case. Time Inc. is giving the magazine an eleventh-hour reprieve, in the manner of the governor calling in a pardon just as a sentenced prisoner is being strapped into the electric chair. Top execs at the publisher are now, instead of arranging funeral plans, sorting through a flood of offers to buy the magazine. Here's what's changed — and why. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Trackback: Owen Thomas, who has got to be the best person possible to write this story, really nails it in this... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Om Malik throws a soiree
On Thursday, Om Malik is going to make a big announcement about GigaOm, his tech blog network. How do we know this? Because he'scancelledstill throwing a swanky party to be held this Wednesday at San Francisco's De Young Museum and briefing journalists afterwards. (Update: Turns out the party's still on. Personal to Om: Dude, my invitation appears to have been lost in the mail. Ahem.) Which partner is Malik announcing a deal with? Not Time Inc., apparently. Malik, a former senior writer at Time Inc.'s Business 2.0 magazine, held acquisition talks with his former employer a few months ago, but they went nowhere. (Vivek Shah, the newly appointed head of Time Inc.'s business publications, even joked about it with Malik when they ran into each other at Fortune's iMeme conference.) I gave Om a buzz, but he couldn't talk when I reached him. I'll update when I know more.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Trackback: What is Om Malik going to announce at his party tomorrow night at the M. H. de Young Museum in... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Fortune parties while Business 2.0 burns
Fortune's summer party, scheduled for today, has been postponed, ostensibly for weather reasons, as New York is under siege from a nor'easter. With sister publication Business 2.0 on the rocks, it might have been seemly to cancel it altogether. We've learned, however, that the all-day shindig has been rescheduled for tomorrow. So, as Fortune staffers party, Business 2.0 employees will continue huddling under a storm of their own. Rumors, true and false, are flying. (I should note that I'm covering this as a former Business 2.0 editor who worked at the magazine for seven years — but events are moving so fast that all of this comes from new reporting since I left, not any knowledge I acquired on the job.) Here's what I know, and what I don't know, so far: More » -
business 2.0
A magazine's last gasp
Looks like the Save Business 2.0 Facebook group might be in vain. This just in from a tipster, confirming the tech title's rumored demise:Business 2 editors (at least one) have told writers they are not assigning any stories for the October issue because the mag's last issue will be September.
Have more details? Please let me know.
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Comment by Ian Bell: No suprise here really...I do not know anyone who actually reads this magazine. It should have been named "Silicon Valley... more » | Other threads
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business 2.0
Facebook to the rescue!
Fans of Time Inc. tech title Business 2.0 have taken the bold step of starting a Facebook group to show their support for the troubled publication. So far, the group has amassed over 50 members, including Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner, Quittner's wife, New York Times columnist Michelle Slatalla, Gizmodo editor Brian Lam, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman. Oh, and former Business 2.0 editor and my new boss Owen Thomas. Let's hope this roster of Valley luminaries is more effective than other futile Facebook groups, such as the 29,359 people who believe strongly in removing the "is" from the Facebook status message. -
business 2.0
Technology-oriented magazine Business 2.0 might publish its last issue in September. [New York Times]
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second life
The new new hype
NICK DOUGLAS — After "radiosurgeon," "robot programmer," and other jobs, "Second Life lawyer" is one of Business 2.0's "new new careers." The occupation's poster boy is Stevan Lieberman, who (according to B2) made $7k in his first two weeks of meeting clients online. Of course, since Second Life only has so many members, this is a "new new career" with a tiny cap on its practitioners. What with this and "Twitter politicians," just thank God no one's written about "MySpace bail-bond firms."
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By Nick DouglasComment by Carlos: This is actually a career possibility unlike most of the hyped up nonsense coming out of Second Life. The... more » | Other threads
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josh quittner
McDonalds.com prankster in Berkeley takeover bid
PAUL BOUTIN - Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner has an exit strategy: He's placed himself in the running for dean of UC Berkeley's journalism school. J-school wonks respect him for his decade with TIME, but I remember Josh Quittner as the guy who used a QuickCam to give me the finger online in 1995. That grainy photo, plus a timeline of JQ's decade of misbehavior after the jump. (You can attend Quittner's public presentation to the school on March 21. Don't be late - this is the guy who once made Steve Jobs reschedule a keynote.) More » -
silicon valley users guide
SVUG #11: What do 'alpha' and 'beta' really mean?
PAUL BOUTIN — Engineers use Greek letters like alpha and beta to be specific. But the fuzzy logic of marketers and magazine editors (me included) has rendered them meaningless. SVUG defines proper jargon after the jump. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Fatlimey: Unless you're NVidia or ATI, when your Beta is everyone else's Alpha. God bless Micro$oft for inventing Release Candidates [1..N]. more » | Other threads
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technorati
Loose Wires: How could a guy named Sparky Rose have a work history?
- Man, this is not the New York Times's best weekend. Their latest gaffe: calling Peter Hirshberg, chairman of blog search company Technorati, the CEO. Poor tech blogger Om Malik was afraid CEO Dave Sifry had been ousted. But Sifry replied on Om's blog that he's still in charge. He tells me the mix-up was probably an innocent mistake by the Times; no one interviewed Sifry for the article. [GigaOM]
- The campaign blog to free imprisoned medical marijuana dispenser Sparky Rose says that his prosecutors claim he had "no previous work history prior to the pot club." Rose was a high-rolling dot-com founder — same thing? [Free Sparky]
- CNET launches a new title called Crave, because the world needs yet another gadget blog. [Crave]
- Who wins the battle of YouTube vs. MySpace, now that the latter is aggressively moving into online video and breaking YouTube vids embedded on MySpace? Google wins, of course. [BusinessWeek]
- NY Times columnist Joe Nocera says Carly Fiorina's memoir of her time heading Hewlett-Packard is a revisionist history — she lies about earnings, he says, and her book should be called "It's All About Me." [NY Times Select]
- Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner will pay all his journalists to run their own blogs — presumably so no one else leaves like B2 writer Om Malik to start their own media empire. [I Want Media]
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features
The eruptors: 11 companies. 11 puff pieces.
Hey, nothing against the eleven corporate leaders profiled in Business 2.0 Magazine's latest feature, "The Disruptors." (Except you, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. Nobody likes you.) It's just that "glory stories" like this make us giggle, because by definition they have to play down the arguments against their subjects. And B2 added Wired-worthy hero shots like the one shown here. So here's a guide to the most egregious idolatry: More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by commish: When Clearwire came to Eugene, OR, tons of peolple got on board. Being an liberal, anti-corporation town, everyone wanted... more » | Other threads
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copycats
The new barbarians: Forbes pillages from Biz 2.0
Why, Forbes, that is a clever theory on "waves of computing" you have there! It reminds us of the theory published last July in competing magazine Business 2.0! More » -
business 2.0
Rejected Business 2.0 cover: It took us a day to get the cocaine just right
The Business 2.0 September cover, picturing Fark.com owner Drew Curtis surrounded by falling cash, was cute, but it just lacked oomph. So Gawker Media designer Jennifer Thorpe punched it up a bit, adding TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington in the process. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Slava: Re: Blogging for Dollars Um... wha? Am I missing something, or should someone tell Business 2.0 that Drew is not a... more » | Other threads
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michael arrington
A picture of Michael Arrington lighting his cigar with a hundred-dollar bill
Earlier this morning, when I asked about a Business 2.0 photo of blogger Michael Arrington, "Why is he not lighting his cigar with a flaming Ben Franklin?" I honestly meant it. I had not seen the table of contents in the magazine's print version. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by keusta: in france, you should be punished for this ! more » | Other threads
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michael arrington
A word about the photo in Business 2.0's Michael Arrington profile
A classic case of "not going far enough." More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by C.G.: I think i see a bubble. Bubble #1 was "let's go public and we'll all be rich! Business... more » | Other threads
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michael arrington
Biz 2 pretends Mike Arrington is fun
"Michael Arrington is a partying kind of guy," says Business 2.0 in their feature on the TechCrunch magnate and the other nouveau riche of blogging, as they describe the buildup to the crazy night of last weekend's TechCrunch7 party. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by What?: That is NOT Jim Fowler (CEO of Jigsaw). Get it right! more » | Other threads
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om malik
Geek out: Business 2.0's party for Om Malik
GigaOM blogger Om Malik is taking his tech site from hobby to business. His alma mater, Business 2.0, held a patio party for him at the Hotel Vitale. Guests included B2 editor Josh Quittner, Craigslist creator Craig Newmark, and a whole gang of delightful snarkers. These photos are from Scott Beale (aka "Long Tentacle") from Laughing Squid. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Nick Douglas: Ya know, SF Magazine hasn't even sent me a copy. What am I supposed to paper my walls with? more » | Other threads
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myspace
MySpace ads: Theory and practice
MySpace's innovative marketing strategy, as described in a Business 2.0 puff piece: More »
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