I remember his by-line, and nascent brand, long ago in MacWorld – and the indefatigable reportage he brought to it. The guy was a force of nature. So his new gig, and the verve he is evidently bringing to it, comes as no surprise. On one of my office shelves I have kept an unopened renewal solicitation, received years ago, to another legendary periodical he edited. Its tagline was every bit as pretentious as the ill-fated industry it chronicled: “Intelligence for the Information Economy”. Just saying those words today begs snide asides about oxymorons. I speak, of course, of that august journal The Industry Standard. Today’s dot-com commercial descendants have more reasonable financial models and business plans than sock-puppets, thankfully. Indeed, the term “information economy” is mainstream in ways The Industry Standard could only fantasize about in 1999. When we all partied like it was, well, 1999.
At Turner DeVaughn we wish Battelle, the Information Economy 2.0, and all of our clients and readers a very Cool Yule and a Great Eight -- as in 2008.
