Suck.com was one of the earliest ad-supported content sites on the Internet. It featured daily editorial content on a wide variety of topics, including politics and pop-culture and was targeted at Generation X. Their tagline, and mascots, were "A fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun".
The site
Suck.com was founded in 1995 by writer Joey Anuff and editor Carl Steadman who created original daily commentary with a satiric edge. The witty writing was accentuated by the unique artistic stylings of cartoonist Terry Colon . In 1996, they brought on the writing talent of Heather Havrilesky , who provided the sarcastic voice of her alter ego Polly Esther in their most popular column Filler.
In 1997, Suck published a compilation of their most popular essays in Suck: Worst-Case Scenarios in Media, Culture, Advertising and the Internet (ISBN 1888869275).
Style
Other than the distinctive artwork of Terry Colon, the site also had many other memorable characteristics that tied their daily articles together. The main text of each article was restricted to a table only 200 pixels wide. Most articles would feature multiple unexplained links, foreshadowing the same technique in modern weblogs.
Regular columns
- Hit & Run — A link-driven summary of recent events
- Filler — A weekly self-deprecating look at pretension in modern times
Automatic Media
Suck's final article "Gone Fishin'", originally published June 8, 2001
In July
2000, following a sharp downturn in Internet investment, suck.com merged with pop-culture rag
Feed Magazine to create
Automatic Media. Their concept was to streamline their operations and collaborate on boutique operations with low staffing costs. Their joint project
Plastic.com was founded with only 4 staffed employees. Despite the faithful cult following, and a combined reader base of over 1 million, Automatic Media folded in June
2001. On
June 8, 2001, Suck.com declared that they were "Gone Fishing" indefinitely, and the site ceased to publish new content. The site still operates today with the full archives of their published articles.
Where are they now?
External links
Last updated: 05-17-2005 23:34:28
