Amy Vickers
August 2001
New Media Diary
And so Peoplenews.com folds, and a version of the truth finally dribbles out after months of faux spin. Diary can't help feeling sorry for founder Jane Procter who was still phoning around frantically last Friday to find someone to buy her gossip website. In view of CEO Simon Walker's desperation to unload the whole shebang and its apparent debt for a puny £1, it's strange that in interviews a few days later he claimed Peoplenews had been close to profitability. And impressive that it had burned through £5m in such a short time. But most extraordinary of all is that it lasted so long. To this end, Diary would like to present Peoplenews with its Award for Endurance (for becoming a one-year-old mishap when it should have been a fly-by-night dot.com disaster). An honour indeed.