It's Getting Lonely

The demise last week of HostingTech magazine was mourned by its many readers. It was the latest casualty in the consolidation of news outlets covering the hosting and data center industry, following the closure of Web Hosting magazine last year.

The hosting news magazines have experienced the same problem faced by many data center operators and service providers - a high cost structure that can't be supported by the revenue stream, at least at this point in the life of the industry.

HostingTech and Web Hosting mag were fine publications, and I'll miss them. Each had strong editorial content, and I read every issue cover to cover. But each time they published, they had to pay for the glossy paper, printing costs and mailing costs. But although these publications covered the Internet industry, they failed to take advantage of one of the Web's greatest business advantages - the ability to reduce costs through electronic delivery.

The primary remaining news outlets dedicated to daily coverage of the hosting/data center sector include Web Host Industry Review and our own publication, CarrierHotels.com. Both are web-based operations and don't have the overhead that stymied the print publications.

The future of news in this industry is online. Further evidence of this is offered by the recent sale of Boardwatch, one of the oldest and most established print publications. It was just bought by Light Reading, which will shut down the print version and move the entire operation online, with a March relaunch date.