InfoWorld, the 29 year-old information technology bible has printed its 1,384th and last issue. "We're folding our print publication and focusing solely on the Web" states the 04/02/07 printed issue that arrived in the mail this morning.

On page 9 of the 4/2/07 print issue:
Ad Dollars Drive Online Move
Why are magazines transitioning from the dual role of print/online entities to publishing exclusively online? The answer is as simple as "follow the money."

…increasingly, Fortune 500 high tech companies are transferring their ad dollars from print magazines to online venues.

…One VP of advertising at a major high tech vendor … said his company has seen a significant decline in the ability to “breakthrough” in print.

…if the print medium is not dead, “it might be dying.”

The final print edition describes how they plan on tallying readers. By its own admission Info World is taking a risk. “The problem for Web sites and their advertisers is that no standard method yet exists for logging events…last December, comScore Networks, one of the top Web metrics clearinghouses, announced that sometime this year, it would be releasing “enhanced measures of user engagement and advertising exposure”…

InfoWorld has also introduced IT Exchange Classifieds Marketplace. The online version of InfoWorld that I looked at has a lively set of advertisements, more so than the Plain Dealer’s Cleveland.com and other online versions of publications I’ve seen. Still I was unable to track down online versions of ads I saw in Info World’s last print edition.

Will InfoWorld thrive in this brave new world? Which publication will be next to go Web only?

http://www.infoworld.com