The last of the Internet magazines

Matthew Schwartz of BtoB magazine writes Tuesday that the demise of Business 2.0 magazine means that all of the titles that came of age during the Internet/tech bubble of the late 1990s are now defunct.

Schwartz wrote, “Business 2.0 joins a long list of publications whose fortunes rose and fell with dot-com boom and bust. These include Red Herring (which continues to exist online), The Industry Standard, Upside and Yahoo! Internet Life.

“(IDG Communications, which owns The Industry Standard brand, is currently ‘exploring the creation of a media property covering emerging technologies and the Internet economy, potentially using IDG’s Industry Standard Brand,’ according to an IDG statement. An IDG spokesman would not elaborate.)

“‘[Business 2.0’s] primary subject has been mainstreamed by the mainstream business publications, which no longer cover the Internet as niche,’ said Gene DeWitt, chairman of consultancy DeWitt Media Strategies.

“DeWitt said Time Inc. waited too long to pull the plug on Business 2.0. ‘Usually, when a company waits this long there’s usually somebody at the top who had a vested interest and a strong feeling that it was a good buy,’ he said.”

Read more here.