Be it earthquakes or the New Economy apocalypse, San Franciscans are accustomed to treading on the rubble of yesterday's talk of the town. But some collapses are more symbolic than others, and last Friday's news that the Industry Standard would cease publication was the dotcom equivalent of the Transamerica Pyramid toppling over.
Here was the great skeptical herald of the Internet age, the irreverent chronicle of digital business, which this year won a prestigious journalism award for its coverage of the AOL Time Warner merger. Last month, when the Standard played host at one of its conferences to the digital powers...