Standard Media International, the parent company of the Industry Standard and TheStandard.com, today filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code.
The filing, made in federal court in San Francisco, comes just one week after SMI laid off most of its staff and suspended publication of the Industry Standard, a weekly technology business news magazine.
The court will now oversee the sale of Standard Media's assets, which include the magazine's subscriber list, trademarks and physical assets like computers and office furniture. Ann-Marie McGowan, the company's chief operating officer, says there is considerable interest in the remaining assets from both financial investors and media companies, some of whom are interested in restarting the magazine. She declined to identify the potential buyers.
The Standard experienced the same dramatic growth and sudden reversal as the technology companies it covered in its editorial pages. At its height, Standard Media had well over 400 employees, publishing magazines that sometimes exceeded 300 pages. The magazine last year published 7,558 advertising pages, a record in the U.S. publishing industry, propelling the company to 2000 revenues of more than $140 million. But the bursting of the Internet bubble and the broad downturn in the advertising market took a considerable toll on the magazine and its related Web and conference operations.
In recent months, Standard Media management had been negotiating for additional financing with its majority investor, the trade magazine publisher International Data Group, and a group of venture capitalists that invested $30 million in the company in late 1999. The collapse of those discussions led to a decision by the company's board to suspend publication of the magazine.
Standard Media continues to maintain a small editorial staff, which operates this Web site, and a core group of business staff focused on scaling back and readying the company's assets for sale. The company plans to continue operating the Web site while it seeks a buyer.
