Re: Jupiter Sold for $250K to Internet.com parent INT

From: Alexis D. Gutzman <alexisg_at_marketingsherpa.com>
Date: Sat 22 Jun 2002 22:06:10 -0500

I'm mostly a lurker, myself. I was a columnist for Internet.com for 2.5
years. In January of 2001, I wrote a column called "Demise of the Dot-Com
Researchers," named after a Forrester report from April of 2000 entitled
"Demise of the Dot-Com Retailers," that you probably remember reading about
(if not actually reading). I heard from analysts at Jupiter, Gartner, and
others asking me what else I had on this topic.

Here's the column,
http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/insights/ebiz/article/0,3371,10379_559801,00.html.
(link may wrap).

I think the interpretation is pretty clear. All the money spent by dot-coms
on the wisdom of the Forresters and Jupiters (I consulted for many and they
all had their $10K+ contracts to get at this research) couldn't keep these
companies from failing. The research was at the margins of the problems the
dot-coms faced. Ultimately, there was no one left willing to pay for that
pricey of content.

Anyone on the Forrester press list has probably noticed that they haven't
produced but a couple "reports" (20-page reports used to be their standard
format) in 2002. Mostly they produce "briefs," which are 2-3 pages and not
very substantial. They even changed the format of the press release about
their research in the last month or so to drop "brief" from the name so you
wouldn't notice that there were no longer any reports.

I wonder what the bidding is on Forrester right now? How many clients do
they have? At this point, what you're buying is the name, which is why INT
Media is considering changing its name to incorporate Jupiter's prestige.

Alexis
---
Alexis D. Gutzman
Managing Editor, Reports
MarketingSherpa
http://www.sherpaweekly.com <== Free "Top 10 eMarketing Mistakes" Report





Received on Sat Jun 22 2002 - 22:06:10 CDT