Fortune downsizes dumb moments in business

Owen Thomas of Valleywag writes Monday about how Fortune magazine has decreased the popular feature of dumbest moments in business from 101 to 21 this year.

Thomas writes, “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.

“A necessary disclosure here: I worked on this list for several years when it was put out by Fortune’s now-defunct sister publication, Business 2.0. It was a pain in the tuchis! It was a lot of work! I had half-a-dozen factcheckers going full speed for weeks on that mother! Oh, and also, it was funnier when I wrote it.

“So I can’t blame Fortune for cutting back. Tough times, which make for great stories of business disaster, are exactly when advertising-dependent publications are least able to afford covering them. In fact, Fortune laid off some of the people who contributed to this year’s list. Next year, I’m betting this one goes to eleven.”

Read more here.