This week we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the launch of Software Development Times. The debut issue of SD Times came out on Feb. 23, 2000, and was succeeded by the March 15 issue. We’ve published on the 1st and 15th of each month thereafter, and have just come out with the 240th issue.
What a wild time! When we were setting up BZ Media (the publishing company behind SD Times) in late 1999, the dot-com market was roaring. When the first issue of the newspaper appeared, stocks were at or near their all-time highs, led by the red-hot technology sector.
Only a few weeks thereafter, the dot-com bubble popped. I’ll tell you, that was a scary time to have poured your life’s savings into a startup media company covering the high-tech industry.
Yet here we are 10 years later, still publishing a print newspaper that’s more popular than ever. (Naturally, you can also read SD Times in a digital edition or on the Web.)
Help us celebrate SD Times’ 10th anniversary by checking out the current issue (Feb. 15, 2010), which contains a special photo spread on pages 16-17 with some priceless old memories. Download it as a PDF here, or as a zipped PDF here.
Then, join us down a walk through the past by reading the Feb. 23, 2000, debut issue of the newspaper. In some ways, SD Times has changed a lot, but in other ways it’s the same newspaper we publish today. Download it as a PDF here or as a zipped PDF here.
Let me close with some words written by Ted Bahr, the other cofounder of BZ Media, in the premier issue:
We don’t aspire to be the next Industry Standard, Release 2.0, Fast Company or Wired. We simply want to be your favorite newspaper. The only paper that reports on what is happening in our growing, fast-moving industry—the software development industry. We’re Luddites of a sort, hoping to bring you the best in handcrafted journalism and reporting on the business of software development and what it means to you.
Thank you for your support of SD Times. We look forward to serving you in our second decade.
Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/zeichick. Read his blog at ztrek.blogspot.com.
