| A History of Business Discussion Lists |
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| Written by Adam Audette | |
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Page 6 of 6 The Rise of the LED DigestThe success of LinkExchange spurred a buyout by MSN in the waning months of 1999, and the discussion list changed hands as well. Slowly but surely MSN tried to integrate its new vision, bCentral, into the LinkExchange brand; slowly but surely they eroded the solid, reputable branding LinkExchange had earned with badly implemented ideas. Yet the responsibility of failure wasn't solely their own, as their timing coincided with the bursting Internet bubble and the impending 'Net depression. During the years of 2000 to 2003, I was working with my father on building Adventive, Inc, a publisher dedicated to email discussion lists. At its peak, Adventive published a dozen high-content business lists covering issues from copywriting to search engine optimization, and each one moderated by an expert in the field. I-Sales also became an Adventive list, as John was able to retain it when MMG was sold to the London firm Tempus. Under the new umbrella of Adventive, we also published the highly regarded I-Search list, a trusted industry resource. I-Design, moderated by Veronica Yuill, was another favorite list alongside the popular I-Content, I-Copywriting, and of course, Eva Rosenberg's I-HelpDesk. After the triumph of MMG and the Internet boom, hopes were high for new ventures. To say there were high expectations for Adventive is an understatement. However, fortune would not smile on our efforts and we struggled, until the company was finally sold to Andy Bourland, co-founder of the once-great ClickZ. Bourland's struggles after the acquisition of Adventive are not my story to tell. Summarily one can easily point to a decidedly unsure Internet coupled with a severe branding demise, as Adventive changed from Up2Speed, to MarketingWonk, to MarketingVox over the course of months. At present the lists have not survived. In May of 1995 my father wrote to the INET-Marketing list, "I'm sure all of us Web page designers will look back in a few years (months?) and marvel at how naive and primitive we were. But you have to start somewhere."These words, although directed towards web design, are quite prescient when applied to the topic at hand. After the steady churn of time, the vision and passion with which Internet pioneers such as Kim Bayne, Glenn Fleishman, and John Audette undertook their work can be viewed isolated in its worth and gauged against modernity. The fact that the LED remains as a trusted resource on the Internet is a testament to the character of its foundations. As is readily apparent from their history (and corroborated by Cliff Kurtzman), there may be a shift away from email discussion lists as the format gets superseded by more interactive technologies. Such a transition is contributing to fewer and fewer quality discussion lists as subscriber levels dwindle and postings dry up. Yet, the LED Digest – a large list of nearly 40,000 subscribers – is experiencing more activity than ever. Empirically this would seem to indicate that moderated email discussion lists of high quality remain in demand, perhaps especially so today because many online forums are filled with posts of relatively little value. The benefits of carefully moderated discussion lists may yet be newly appreciated in light of such noisy and strongly opinionated resources. While we tend to regard Web sites and online ventures as temporal things (which they often are), it's reassuring that some are substantial enough to last the test of time. From its origins in early 1997 to today, our vision has remained clear: to provide an open, professional, unbiased forum for Internet marketing. It is my hope that the LED will continue to provide a rich resource for the 'Net entrepreneur, the newbie, the small businessperson, the college professor, the student, and the veteran alike for many years to come. This Web site is another effort to ensure that goal. Resources Glenn Fleishman's Internet Marketing List archives (at archive.org): Online Advertising Jim Sterne's article about INET-Marketing (1996):
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The Adventive venture was ill timed. Already after selling MMG, John perceived signs of a shifting economy, and the early murmurings of trouble. Still, the gold rush mentality held sway, and money was poured into Adventive's beautiful offices, complete with an employee game room and stocked vending machines. The IT infrastructure was robust and impressive, with large glass-paned cooling rooms holding stacks of humming servers greeting visitors upon entrance to the suites. The Adventive logo, in large bronze lettering, was mounted on a wall in the entryway.
Early in 2003, in the dark heart of the Internet crash, bCentral was forced to make wide cuts. The Daily Digest was one of the first services to go. I had retained a good relationship with my editors, however, and was given the list (upon several contingencies) when I was let go. After securing the list, my efforts were aimed at reclaiming the LED's identity. Therefore, the first step I took was to rename the list from bCentral Daily Digest back to its original name, the LED Digest. Reclaiming our old name was largely a symbolic gesture of the circular road the list had taken since its inception in 1997. It became the LED again, and its energy was revitalized. But this time the name "LED" wasn't a particular abbreviation; it was simply a signification of its long tradition and reputation. And, even more importantly, it was (and is) in possession of its rightful brand. After the LED reclaimed its rightful name, many LEDers contacted me with enthusiastic messages. The community was behind me all the way! 
