"The dreams of webzines fizzle out".

That's the head The New York Times gave to a sobering article on online magazines' disappointing results--sobering at least to online publishers but reassuring to many print publishers, including marketing consultant Barbara Kaplowitz who alerted us to the article with this comment: "Long live us dinosaurs. We're not dead yet--in fact, we're feeling much better."

The March 9 article by Jayson Blair begins: "In the good old days of just a year ago, the founders of Inside.com sniffed at the dead weight of their competitors' 'legacy publications'--that is, those printed on paper. Like others, they predicted that the nimbleness of the Internet would quickly make them a must-have for media professionals.

"Then they cranked up their Web site last spring," Blair continued, "just as the Internet stock bubble burst. Out went the forecasts of 30,000 paying Internet subscribers within a year (not to mention 100,000 subscribers and profitability after three years). And in came a somewhat retrograde Plan B: a print magazine.

"'We realized pretty early that being an independent, Webonly provider was not entirely viable,' said Michael Hirschorn, editor-in-chief of Inside.com. 'You had to find other ways to become viable."'

By most accounts the resulting print magazine, [Inside], taglined "The Business of Entertainment, Media & Technology," is successful: top-notch reporters and contributors, solid content, and plenty of ads.

Former New York magazine editor Kurt Andersen joined Hirschorn and founder and CEO Deanna Brown to launch [Insidej which, as editor-in-chief Richard Siklos wrote in the inaugural issue, "is a joint venture with Standard Media, owners of the Industry Standard, one of the most successful start-up magazines in recent years."

The New York Times' Jayson Blair went on to describe similar transitions from electronic to print media by Slate and Salon. "For example, Salon, based in San Francisco, has branched out into newsletters. Its rival, Slate, based in Redmond, Wash., introduced a print edition and offers versions on the Web that can be printed out or saved as an audio file or an e-book. Inside .com, in New York, has been playing host to industry exhibitions as well as introducing its glossy magazine."

Not all publishers, however, are discouraged by the disappointing online results. Blair reports that Scott Moore, the publisher of Slate, "said the Internet itself was being judged too narrowly. After all, he said, Slate on the Web attracts more than two million visitors a month.

"'From my perspective, a lot of the negative stuff that has been written about Internet content is from the perspective of Wall Street,' he said. 'If you look at it from a user perspective, online content is not only alive and well, but thriving.

"'The audience that matters in the end are not the Wall Street analysts or the media critics,' he added, 'but the audience of our readers, and they are voting with their mice."'

[Inside], 212-937-0100.