Friday, January 2, 2009
News 8020 shutting down means media won't catch a break in 2009
Posted by Alejandro A. Leal on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:27 PM
If you thought 2008 was a bad year for print media, don't hold your breath in 2009. The New York Times Bits blog is reporting that 8020 Media, the company behind JPG and Everywhere magazines, is shutting down. No bankruptcy, no making a run at fresh VC, no, they're shutting down, clamping-the-chain-on-the-front-door shutting down.
The thing about 8020 Media was its strategy; the company was breaking ground by being one of the first to go from web-only to web/print, tap their user base for content (JPG published user-submitted-and-reviewed photographs), and operate with a low editorial budget. Understandingly, it was being lauded as a model for the future of publishing.
Curiously, not long ago, like in 2007, the Times itself was ga-ga over 8020's business model, launching a profile of the company thusly:
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 — A funny thing happened while Halsey Minor was trying to kill print journalism. He ended up publishing magazines — big, heavy magazines, with beautiful pictures on quality paper — the kind he and others had declared obsolete.
Now, Minor himself (who founded CNET.com) shut the money pump and the company will cease operations immediately.
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