flashback: june 2, 1997

people often wonder how can traditional newspapers take on the beasts that are craigslist and google.

one of the solutions thought of is why don't the newspapers just join forces to become a huge consortium. they have the market, the writers, and some of the infrastructure.

little do most people know, they tried. in the late '90s. new century networks (ncn) was formed by nine major news conglomerates -- the new york times, cox, gannet, hearst, knight ridder, tribune, times-mirror, advance and washinton post. there goal was to bounce content off of each other, sell advertising in a broad yet targeted way.

in early '98, the company folded. the large papers were afraid that the smaller papers would take away readership. the smaller papers were afraid that the larger papers always got say into what the direction of the group should go into.

the day marks the first day into salaried workforce. i worked for ncn as a network engineer and quickly became a website programmer. the people were good, and there were a handful of dotcom startups that spawned from the relationships of ncn. i missed the chance at my millions not joining c-mail afterwards.