The New Power of Social Networking II
If you haven’t heard, Business 2.0, one of the last remaining “new economy” magazines of the bubble era (and a magazine I’ve written for), is likely to close its doors, and its owner, Time inc., is currently shopping for buyers.
Valleywag reported yesterday that it will be around for at least another issue, and its September issue will publish on time. Why this change of events (or delayed inevitability)? Many are speculating that the Facebook group started in part by our friend Sebastien Provencher potentially convinced Time executives that there is enough support of the magazine to give it another shot – or at least to keep it around long enough to continue searching for a buyer who might see value in it.
If this is true, it is another testament to the growing power of social media (as we’ve discussed in the past), which is making itself known through a new generation of social networks and tools such as Facebook and Digg.
Business 2.0 was founded in 1998 by my old friend and mentor Jim Daly and then sold to Time Warner in 2001. If it falls, it would join the graveyard of magazines that characterized the bubble era business environment (for better or worse), including the original Red Herring, Forbes ASAP (both of whose newsrooms I was standing in when the bottom fell out), Industry Standard and Upside.
In related news, Red Herring announced that it will kill its print edition to focus only on online distribution – never a good sign. We’ll see what happens next and we’re pulling for Business 2.0, all its staffers and the social networking movement to save it.
