AOL to Close TUAW
More bad news for the Apple press: AOL is closing the door on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). TUAW was founded in 2004 by Weblogs, Inc., which was purchased by AOL the following year. AOL is also pulling the plug on its gaming site, Joystiq. We wish the staff of both publications the best.
I keep thinking about the demise of Macworld, and now TUAW, and other sites my Apple-writing colleagues used to write for, but now, don't. It occurs to me that this may in part be fallout from Apple/iOS becoming ubiquitous. The incoming class at Unnamed Large Research University was noticeably dominated by Apple gear this fall. As ubiquitous platforms, dominant platforms, users no longer seek niche publications and Websites, they expect mainstream technical coverage instead, thus removing the need for niche publications.
That's an astute observation, but I think "need" may not be the issue here. There's no indication that TUAW wasn't being read - my suspicion is that the ad revenues were dropping, and that was the real problem.