The end of an era, say goodbye to an icon

I was shocked last week when I received my copy of InfoWorld. Printed in the corner of the cover was the announcement: "The Final Print Issue."

I have been reading InfoWorld for nearly twenty years. I remember when it was printed on large newsprint. In the early days, the paper was the premier source of information on technology. The articles, reviews, and news were relevant to the industry. I loved Robert X. Cringley when he provided insider information wrapped in his unique humor about Pammy and his Studebaker Hawk.

But the years have not been kind of the paper. The content simply has not retained the same quality and relavence it had during the 90s. Even Cringley digressed into useless gossip from readers and ranting against Microsoft. From my perspective, only Tom Yager remained insightful.

InfoWorld spins the change as evolution; a move away from the print world and strictly into the online world. I see it as evolution toward death. The move ignores the fact that people read newspapers and magazines for the convenience of the media. It's very easy to skim through a paper, absorb the headlines, and drill into interesting articles. No one will skim online content in the same manner.

Everyone knows the web is a tremendous source of information. And every provider of news, technology or otherwise, must have a web presence. The online experience, however, is very different from the offline experience. InfoWorld, for example, was delivered to me. It's the perfect push technology because once it is in my hands I always flip through it. InfoWorld also sends me email with links to their site. These are very easy to ignore, unsubscribe, or filter as junk. I generally ignore them.

I don't see InfoWorld reinventing themselves into Digg. It is still old school and its' web site doesn't put them on the Web 2.0 radar (which is getting tired anyway). In fact, their web-site feels more like CNN than Digg. As for me, it looks like I will be getting my technology news from eWeek and Wired.

Hey Spencer F. Katt, I miss Pammy and the Studebaker.