(This is a reprint of an article I originally wrote for the Parliant Blog)

I was sad to see the news coming from Macworld today. Many top editors and writers seem to have lost their jobs, and the print edition is being discontinued. This leaves the macworld.com web site as a shell of its former self. I hope they can still make something of the site, but they’ve lost so many fine people and indications are that they might be moving to a model of contributed articles.

There has been an unfortunate progression on the Macworld web site design with some agressive advertising (and auto-play ads GGGRRRRRRR!) that’s at odds with the readership, and I guess some of us have been expecting that this day almost had to come. I always stuck with the site because there was still solid writing and editorial, and I expect that these writers and editors will find good homes in journalism again (like at iMore or on to new projects). There’s a good summary of coverage on Michael Tsai’s blog.

Last night as I walked around the house, I noticed how many old Macworld magazine issues I still have scattered around. Parliant and our telephone products were covered frequently by Macworld over many years, as well as the products of so many people we know in the Mac community. I can say without a doubt that Macworld’s coverage of our products like PhoneValet and PhoneHerald contributed in a big way to our company’s success. Fair reviews and good release coverage in print and on the web were a major source of customers who came to our products, driven by the trust in Macworld’s work.

We won a Macworld Eddy award back in 2006 for PhoneValet 4, and two best-of-show awards at Macworld Expo. You can chronicle the history of our products on macworld.com (and the number of Mice we earned!), and here’s just a few highlights:

We were covered so many times that I have often used the Macworld web site to remind me of when we put various features and versions of the product out! As we’re re-entering the Mac software market, I’m sad that Macworld might not really be a big part of our world.
I’m going miss these little guys! Macworld Misc

Macworld helped build and sustain the Mac community, and for that they deserve our thanks.

And, for the record, my bookmark for the Macworld site is still to maccentral.com. Now I feel old.