The Return of a Standard, Minus the Cheerleading

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Veterans of the digital space will well remember the high-flying, ad-engorged Industry Standard. The rise and fall of this infamous chronicler of the first dot-com bubble pretty much followed the trajectory and financial fate of its subject. Like the Web companies it covered, the magazine was itself dogged by tales of office perk excess, knee-jerk over-exuberance for start-ups and ridiculous burn rates. IDG revives the brand online this week at TheStandard.com, and managing editor Ian Lamont seems to anticipate skepticism in his statement in the press release: "We won't be cheerleaders for the Web. We'll get excited about the products, ideas and trends that make sense, and we'll be the first to take a critical view and ask the tough questions," he says.

TheStandard.com feels crafted to insulate itself from past criticism by invoking a range of voices and the users themselves. Dispensing with a formal editor in chief, the site runs news and analysis items down the left column. The centerpiece of the site and the content model seems to be the prediction market, where users can bet virtually on an industry proposition, like the likelihood of Yahoo accepting Microsoft's buyout offer. You can win "Standard Dollars" you can use to place other bets and also win notoriety in the online community leaderboard.

With a slimmer staff of five and, we imagine, fewer perks, The Standard site is following trends yet again in relying on a more streamlined Web 2.0 model that leverages users more effectively. Perhaps more to the point, the brand is able to channel some of the Web 1.0 impulses into a safer format. The prediction market still relies on that competitive, risk-taking and bravado-filled ethos of the dot-com era, but now makes it into a harmless game.

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