I don't know why I saved so many magazines from the tech explosion and subsequent demise. But I did. And last night I was reading an old Industry Standard. For fun. Yes, wierd. Well, I miss those days. I remember telling my younger colleages at the time that this was the most exciting time in history to be doing what we were doing. And it was true. They didn't know. They didn't know what it was like not to have a quarter-million dollar budget to do a web site. They'd been in the business for a few years, during the early days of the climb, when everything seemed possible and money was no object. sigh.
So, every now and then, when I get nostalgic, I whip out an old Industry Standard or a 400 page Business 2.0 and read back on where we were.
The particular issue that caught my attention was the April 16, 2001 issue of the Industry Standard. By then, the decline had already started. It was engaged. Nothing to be done but watch the fire burn.
You could measure the damage by the absence of pages in the top pubs. This particular issue was only 85 pages. Suddenly, top tech publications were taking human interest stories and spinning them as tech, instead of taking technology stories and giving them a human interest angle.
There are some pretty funny things, looking back two years in time, in the magazine. It's interesting for me to remember what I was focused on then. And to think, I hadn't heard of blogging. Wow. It feels like 100 years ago in some ways.
Anyway, let me get to the funny part before I start feeling old.
On page 24 there are some statistics. These stats demonstrate what a difference a day makes---well, a day or the death of an industry. I repeat them here, and take a shot at updating them for 2003, based on nothing more than my instinct and what's left of my sense of humor:
April 2001: "48 percent of U.S. workers say a pay raise would encourage them to stay with their current employer."
Feb 2003: "48 percent of U.S. workers say they would like to have a current employer."
April 2001: "9 percent of workers said stock options would encourage them to stick around."
Feb 2003: "100 percent of workers said, "Stock what?"
And from another page...
April 2001, correcting an error from the previous month's issue. The editor writes the following in Errata: "According to e-marketer, 29.7 percent of the email the average user receives in 2003--not 97 percent as previously reported--will be marketing messages.
Feb 2003: Errata to Errata: "Um, no, actually, our Errata was in error. We were right on on that 97 percent number, 'cept we shoulda called it spam."
That's all for tonight. More when I can stand it---you know, after I wipe away the tears...
