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Starving to Death on $200 Million Hardcover – International Edition, January 7, 2003

by
James Ledbetter (Author)
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James Ledbetter (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (January 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1586481290
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586481292
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,394,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsA Nostalgic Obituary
By Jase Wells on February 10, 2003
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
The tale of the rise and fall of The Industry Standard is an entertaining read, especially if you know somebody affected by the dotcom bubble burst, if you were laid off yourself, or especially if you were an employee of the company in question. I just happen to fit all three categories.
The Standard was of course an editorial operation, and this book focuses on the experiences of the editorial staff of which the author was a member. Since I was a part of the technical infrastructure team, I wasn't privy to many of the intricate details. Ledbetter's insights into the editorial staff's point-of-view are interesting and amusing; the basic happenings are all there (extravagant offsite meetings, reckless overspending, internal power struggles, and so on), but with some added first-person (or second-person) details.
I was hesitant to buy (and read) this book at first. Would I want to relive the days of The Standard? Would there be anything in there I didn't already know? Would it be interesting? For the most part, sure. It's not entirely a rehash of the life and death of one company; there are sprinklings of humorous (and Dilbert-ish) anecdotes that should be appealing to anybody who has dealt with the pressures of startups and shutdowns.
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5.0 out of 5 starsThose were the days
By A Customer on January 13, 2003
Format: Hardcover
I recommend this book highly. While it stands on its own, it will be especially powerful for those of you -- like me -- who were participants in the tumultuous time that Ledbetter chronicles.
While I faithfully read the Industry Standard during its era, I never stopped to think about it as a business. It was clearly successful, and I had thought of it as a lucky benefactor, a byproduct of a real revolution. But what Ledbetter instead shows you is a business that had frankly more real success than almost all the startups it reported on -- the Healtheons, WebMd, Epinions, etc of the era were lucky to do a few million in revenue, and yet in the span of 18 months this magazine went from nothing to over $200 million in revenues, was profitable, had 450 employees, and was actually the highest earning magazine in America. It was almost the opposite of the dotcoms which had millions of readers/users but no revenue -- The Standard has millions of revenue on just a couple hundred thousand readers.
How do you create not just the most successful new magazine in history but actually become the number one earner -- equivalent to winning Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same year -- and then screw it up so badly and get unlucky enough that the business is dead 12 months later? Read this book to find out!
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4.0 out of 5 starsI just finished reading this nearly 15 year-old story of ...
By Nick Sanders on December 20, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I just finished reading this nearly 15 year-old story of a failed magazine that chronicled the rise of Silicon Valley and what became our socially networked world. Just as the dot.com became the dot.bomb in 2000, so did the magazine start to fall from its heights, and it eventually crashed. I read Industry Standard and was fascinated by the inside scoop on its workings.

I think this book would be of interest to students of journalism, to students of tech history, or to those who want to learn more about publishing and how it has been impacted by the digital age.
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4.0 out of 5 starsA thoroughly compelling story
By J. Simon on July 27, 2003
Format: Hardcover
Nowadays, saying a book read more like fiction than non-fiction is a common thing to say about a book, but I have to say the way Ledbetter captures your attention and keeps you flipping pages is astonishing me because I don't read that many non-fiction books. I breezed thorough the first half in what seemed like only a few minutes, and the ending left me wanting to know more about "The Standard" as he refers to it in the book.
It's not uncommon for me to read a good mystery or thriller in 1 or 2 sittings, but I've never had any desire to keep reading a non-fiction book(even a good non-fiction book) for an extended period of time, and in a funny way the epilogue did seem more like the end of a mystery, filling us in on what's happened to the characters since the Standard folded. I read the book (cover to cover) in a couple of hours. I've never read anything by James Ledbetter before, but I've got to figure he's a pretty good reporter, because he managed to capture my attention, and hold it till he was done with me, and in the end I wanted a lot more. Or course, it's possible I simply had nothing better to do.
It's not a 5 star book. It's not going to change my life, and I won't pass this around to all my friends saying "You must read this book!" But as someone who had never heard of the Industry Standard till I opened the book, I came away from it saying, "I want to know more..."
Also, from my point of view, the book was not about the magazine. It was about Ledbetter's journey through the magazine, often shifting from the magazine's rise and fall to humorous stories about his run ins with PR agents, details about stories they published, and tales of a party or event, that he may or may not have attended.
If you do have a chance to pick up this book, you might enjoy the result, not because of the lessons learned, but because the story is just too good to be fiction.
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2.0 out of 5 starsmildy interesting, ultimately fails to do what is says...
By D. H. Richards on September 16, 2003
Format: Hardcover
Ledbetter was the editor for the European edition of the Industry Standard, so while not an outsider, he spent his time in NYC or London, far away from the San Fran offices,this is not exactly an inside view either.
The result reads like an in depth business journal article (which figures, based on the authors background) by someone with really good connections. There are some interesting stories, some tidbits about what went on in the "fat year" (but not enough) and some amusing insights.
The book falls flat because Ledbetter fails to really explain what went on from the inside. He barely scratches the surface, constantly back tracking, covering himself (no surprise based on the seeming constant threats of libel suits during his tenure) and generally trying to play both sides. He wants to dig up the dirt, but he also wants to continue working in the publishing business. The result is like the version of events an adult would tell a child, the story is the same, the details just get glossed over.
Not the dot.com expose we have been waiting for.
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