They Biffed My Boss

CMP, publishers of Doctor Dobb's Journal and Software Development as well as the company behind the SD West and SD Best Practices conferences, sacked a bunch of folks last week, including two close friends of mine, who were the editor-in-chief and copy editor of Software Development magazine. For the record, Alexa was a helluva boss to work for. She constantly goaded us all to excellence just by sheer force of example, and I know for a fact that she fought like a tiger for her staff and to insulate the magazine's editorial content from the demands of the vendors advertising in it.

Booting her and Laurie a week before Christmas bodes ill for them (Alexa is five months pregnant) as well as the magazine, IMHO. Business is business, eh? Real classy timing, fellows. I can't really give their side here, because I haven't heard officially from anyone at CMP. Unofficially, I've been told I still have a job, which I like.

Perhaps the management will pull a rabbit out of a hat and find a substitute for these two women's drive, intellectual energy, and brilliant command of the English language. (And if it weren't for Laurie's combination of encouragement and gentle, sure-handed improvement of my writing, I would have given up the trade long ago.)

I sure hope that they manage to keep SD going as a high-quality operation, because I truly think it's the best thing out there for developers. I'm biased now, of course, since I write for it. But I formed that opinion long before I started writing for it in 2000 with the famous pig poop article.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. Regardless, it's the end of a good era.