Today's Media Unspun is the last one. For the past year we've worked to sneak an irreverent, independent voice into your inboxes every morning along with all that spam. We hope we've informed and entertained you.

I'd like to thank the writers -- Deborah Asbrand, Keith Dawson, Jen Muehlbauer, Lori Patel -- for entertaining and informing me every day. Copy editor Jim Duffy is the drollest early-morning instant-message correspondent an editor could hope for. Our advisors were full of fantastic ideas; I'd like to single out Michael Robertson for the many kinds of support he's given us. Peter Mesnik and the team at iMakeNews built the ideal publishing platform for us. Our readers may have been our greatest asset, keeping us honest in countless ways.

We don't want to stop, but the current business climate has been unfriendly to even our best efforts. We knew launching a new publication about the technology business during a technology and publishing recession might be rough, but why not try? So rather than find ways to cut and continue, potentially ruining a publication that you've actually paid for, we've decided to close down while we're still delivering the service you expect.

I could go on about the need for independent voices on the Net in this age of media megaconsolidation and how independent voices who want to make an impact need to band together as a network: Preserve our idiosyncratic voices, but share a business back end. But that argument is for another day. For now, I want to express our gratitude to you, promise that we won't sell your email addresses to anyone else, and point out that we all need to find real jobs now.

Thank you all.

Jimmy Guterman,
on behalf of the Media Unspun staff

P.S. Those interested can find all our back issues at http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_archive_view.cfm?u=mediaunspun. Our weblog, intended to let our subscribers talk back, remains at http://www.mediaunspun.com/weblog.html.

Copyedited by Jim Duffy (jimduffy86@yahoo.com).

Editor and publisher: Jimmy Guterman (guterman@vineyard.com).

Media Unspun is produced by The Vineyard Group Inc.
Copyright 2002 Media Unspun, Inc., and The Vineyard Group, Inc.