I worked as an editor at an alt-weekly in 1999. It was a wildly profitable newspaper drunk on the idea that the internet was the future, and the path to the fut

I worked as an editor at an alt-weekly in 1999. It was a wildly profitable newspaper drunk on the idea that the internet was the future, and the path to the future would be paved with outrageously expensive website projects! I'm reminded of an all-hands-on deck meeting we had on the loading dock (where trucks unloaded pallets of newspapers, hot of the presses) in which a middle-aged guy who had been promoted from account executive to something like webmaster announced "beginning tomorrow, our readers will be able to purchase a car on our website!". I can assure you, nobody ever did. (Obviously Amazon is a whole different animal, and buying a car in person still sucks, so more power to them.)