{{Short description|Former website and trade magazine}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox website | name = Inside | logo = Inside-logo.jpg | screenshot = Inside-dot-com-screenshot.png | url = {{URL|Inside.com}} | commercial = Yes | advertising = | type = Media & Entertainment | registration = | language = English | owner = Powerful Media (1999–2001)<br />Primedia (now Rent Group) (2001) | founded = 1999 | founder = Kurt Andersen, Michael Hirschorn, Deanna Brown | authors = | editor = Michael Hirschorn | key_people = Steven Brill (from April 2001) | employees = 100 (April 2001)<ref name=nypost /> | headquarters = 601 West 26th Street<br />New York City | launch_date = {{start date and age|2000|05 }} | current_status = Defunct (as of {{end date|2001|10|}}) | footnotes = }}'''''Inside.com''''' was a website and trade magazine that covered "the converging worlds of entertainment, media, music and technology."<ref>Hill, Julianne. [https://www.writersdigest.com/articles-freelance/kurt-anderson-co-chair-of-insidecom "Kurt Anderson: Co-chair of Inside.com: Kurt Andersen, co-chair of the hot Internet site Inside.com, founder of Spy magazine and author of the best-selling novel Turn of the Century talks about his career here,"] ''Writer's Digest'' (2000).</ref> Launched with a great deal of hype in the spring of 2000,<ref name=WaPo /> Inside was a victim of the dot-com bubble and the early 2000s recession, and it closed down at the end of 2001. Company headquarters were in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.<ref name=Observer>Snyder, Gabriel. [https://observer.com/2001/04/brills-contented-insidecom-merger-feeds-his-big-maw/ "Brill’s Contented: Inside.com Merger Feeds His Big Maw,"] ''Observer'' (April 9, 2001).</ref>
The magazine/website is not related to the later Jason Calacanis startup Inside.com, which focuses on delivering thematic newsletters.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/investor-jason-calacanis-worth-millions-thanks-to-uber-2017-7|title=How a founder went from being worth millions to -$10,000 almost overnight — then rebounded to a $100 million fortune|last=Mazarakis, Shontell|first=Anna, Alyson|date=2017-08-03|website=Business Insider|access-date=2019-10-27}}</ref>
== History == Inside.com was co-founded by Kurt Andersen, Michael Hirschorn, and Deanna Brown (calling themselves Powerful Media)<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/jun/10/business.theobserver|title=The downside to Inside.com: They were the new chroniclers of the net age, but online magazines like Inside.com are being spiked|first=Edward|last=Helmore|date=9 June 2001|work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref name=WaPo /> in 1999, with the announced goal of helping to "reinvent a form, not unlike magazines at the beginning of the twentieth century, or even newspapers and the novel in the eighteenth and nineteenth."<ref name=Guardian />
The company began with $12 million in financing<ref name=Awl>Sicha, Choire. [https://www.theawl.com/2011/05/bubbles-crashes-and-burns-15-lessons-from-10-years-ago/ "Bubbles, Crashes and Burns: 15 Lessons from 10 Years Ago,"] ''The Awl'' (May 25, 2011).</ref> from Jim Cramer and Flatiron Partners, and added a second round of $23 million in May 2000,<ref name=NYMag /> prompting Andersen to famously proclaim that raising money for the site was "easier than getting laid in 1969."<ref name=Observer /><ref name=Slate>Moneybox. [https://slate.com/business/2000/07/inside-com-size-matters.html "Inside.com: Size Matters,"] ''Slate'' (July 18, 2000).</ref><ref name=WaPo />
Starting with an "all-star" staff of 72 stocked by "old media" talent from the likes of ''Time'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''USA Today'', ''U.S. News & World Report'', Disney, ''Variety'', ''The Hollywood Reporter'', ''The New York Observer'' and ''Rolling Stone'',<ref name=WaPo>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2000/05/03/point-and-clique/c8666ca3-178e-4118-be65-020c0fdfef0d|title=Point and Clique|first=Howard|last=Kurtz|newspaper=Washington Post|date=May 3, 2000}}</ref> Inside.com launched in May 2000<ref name=NYMag>Wolff, Michael. [https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/columns/medialife/3259/ "The Insiders,"] ''New York'' (May 29, 2000).</ref> as an online media news website. (Courtney Love attended the launch party.)<ref name=Awl />
Inside's internal "manifesto" was "Correctness. Insiderness. Juiciness. Utility. Honesty. Smartness. Go kill".<ref name=Guardian /> The site was divided into sections — "Inside Dope," "Daily Digest," "Power Index," "Ratings," "This Morning's Talk Shows," "Mogul Astrology," and "Today's Gossip";<ref name=WaPo /> subscribers were also promised data-driven lists of TV ratings, box office numbers, CD sales, and the like.<ref name=WaPo /> Subscriptions to the site were priced at $199 a year,<ref name=NYMag /><ref name=Guardian /> with an announced goal of 30,000 subscribers.<ref name=NYTimes-Kuczynski /><ref name=WaPo />
''Inside'', the biweekly print magazine, launched in December 2000.<ref name=Awl />
The site was named Best Internet Site at the 5th Golden Satellite Awards (held in January 2001),<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000296/2001/|work=Internet Movie Database|at=imdb.com|title=Satellite Awards for 2001|publisher=IMDb|access-date=May 17, 2017|date=May 17, 2017}}</ref> and also won the Webby for Best News Site in 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/19/newmedia1|title=Web 'Oscars' results announced|first=Amy|last=Vickers|date=19 July 2001|work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://winners.webbyawards.com/2001/websites-and-mobile-sites/general-websites-and-mobile-sites/news/157613/inside|title=Webby Winner: Websites and Mobile Sites: News 2001|access-date=January 21, 2023}}</ref>
Things, however, soon turned sour for Inside. The site never got more than a few thousand subscribers, and like many other publications covering media and technology, the company couldn't figure out how to turn a profit.<ref name=Guardian />
In April 2001, Inside.com was sold to Steven Brill/PriMedia (now Rent Group), who immediately canceled the print magazine (after only two issues)<ref name=Guardian /> and laid off 50 staff members.<ref name=Observer /> At the same time, Brill announced he would merge the magazine with his own ''Brill's Content'' in the fall of 2001, with the new publication to be named ''Inside Content''.<ref name=nypost>{{cite news |last1=Kelly |first1=Keith J. |title=Brill's Bloodbath – Inside Mag to Shutter, up to 50 to be Axed |url=https://nypost.com/2001/04/03/brills-bloodbath-inside-mag-to-shutter-up-to-50-to-be-axed/ |access-date=16 September 2021 |work=New York Post |date=3 April 2001}}</ref><ref name=Observer /> Instead, Inside editor-in-chief Hirschorn left in July,<ref name=NYTimes-Kuczynski>Kuczynski, Alex. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/25/business/editor-in-chief-of-insidecom-steps-down.html "Editor in Chief Of Inside.com Steps Down,"] ''New York Times'' (July 25, 2001).</ref> and Inside itself closed down in October 2001, as Brill dissolved his partnership with PriMedia.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/business/brill-s-content-closes-web-site-insidecom-is-cut-back.html |title=Brill's Content Closes; Web Site, Inside.com, Is Cut Back |first=Felicity |last=Barringer |work=The New York Times |date=16 October 2001 |access-date=19 August 2020}}</ref>
== Notable staff and contributors == {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| * Michael Hirschorn, editor-in-chief<ref name=nypost /> * Sarah Bartlett, editorial director<ref name=nypost /> * Tom Bierbaum<ref>[http://www.legiononline.net/volume5/creators.html Bierbaum bio in the Legion of Super-Heroes Online Companion: Volume 5.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071004050625/http://www.legiononline.net/volume5/creators.html |date=2007-10-04 }} Accessed September 15, 2008.</ref> * Bernie Brillstein, advice columnist<ref name=WaPo /> * David Carr<ref name=WaPo /> * Michael Cieply, West Coast editor * Tom Fontana, industry insider<ref name=WaPo /> * Bruce Feirstein * Andrew Hindes, Senior Correspondent and Film Editor<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehotbutton.com/today/hot.button/2006_thb/060224_fri.html |title=February 24, 2006 |publisher=The Hot Button |date= |access-date=2011-05-17}}</ref> * Jared Hohlt * Sarah Lewitinn * Kim Masters, senior correspondent<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lyman |first1=Rick |title=Stumbling Toward A Theater Near You |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/15/movies/stumbling-toward-a-theater-near-you.html |access-date=16 September 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=15 April 2001}}</ref> * Sara Nelson,<ref name=twsOctJ15>{{cite news |last= Motoko |first = Rich |title= Top Editor at Publishers Weekly Is Laid Off |publisher= The New York Times: Arts |date= January 26, 2009 |url= http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/top-editor-at-publishers-weekly-is-laid-off/ |access-date= 2010-10-05 }}</ref> Books<ref name=WaPo /> * Roger Parloff, legal editor<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/00/09/24/reviews/000924.24parloft.html |title=Coughing It Up |last=Parloff |first=Roger |date=2000-09-24 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-03-30}}</ref> * Kyle Pope, television<ref name=WaPo /> * Harry Shearer, industry insider<ref name=WaPo /> * Erik Wemple, Washington correspondent<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://aan.org/alternative/Aan/ViewPerson?oid=oid%3A7408|title=Erik Wemple|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194254/http://aan.org/alternative/Aan/ViewPerson?oid=oid%3A7408|archive-date=September 27, 2007}} Brief biography in the ''People Directory'' of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) (incl. hyperlinked archive to "In the News" articles by and about Wemple and his AAN award and honorable mention.)</ref> }}
== See also == * ''Business 2.0'' * ''The Industry Standard'' * ''Red Herring'' * ''Mediaweek'' * ''Variety'' * ''Wired''
== References == === Notes === {{reflist}}
=== Sources === * Beller, Thomas. [https://mrbellersneighborhood.com/2002/10/inside-inside-com "Inside Inside.com,"] ''Mr. Beller's Neighborhood'' (Oct. 25, 2002).
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20001109191600/http://inside.com/front/index.html <nowiki>Inside.com</nowiki> front page from November 8, 2000]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inside.com}} Category:1999 establishments in New York City Category:2001 disestablishments in New York (state) Category:Defunct American websites Category:Internet properties established in 1999 Category:Magazines about the media Category:Magazines published in New York City Category:Mass media trade magazines Category:Online magazines published in the United States