Valleywag
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Blaise Zerega
Portfolio editor goes startup
The only thing more foolish than joining a startup right now is staying at a print magazine. Portfolio's San Francisco-based deputy editor, Blaise Zerega, has left the Condé Nast business magazine. He's now the president and COO of Fora.tv, an online-video startup which collects clips of those boring public-affairs speeches we all dread attending, but go for the mingling and cocktails that follow. Not clear how Fora.tv will reproduce mingling and cocktails online. One other thing notable about Fora.tv: Its address, 1550 Bryant Street. That's the same building where Zerega and I worked at the old Red Herring, back when it was a respectable chronicler of the technology business. -
deathwatch
Oh, Canada? Red Herring postpones event from May to June to September
With constant staff turnover and an eviction from its offices, at this point it would be more surprising if Red Herring managed to put together an event at all. Its Canadian startup showcase was originally scheduled for this week; citing a conflict with a Canadian venture-capital conference, the Herring moved it to June. Publisher Alex Vieux missed a poorly attended "introductory cocktail" party for the event in March; his staff put his absence down to a missed flight connection. Now the event has been rescheduled for September — the same month as the Herring's hastily postponed wireless conference in Beijing, and its Asia conference in Hong Kong. Vieux will have plenty of opportunities to miss flight connections — if any of the events happen at all. -
deathwatch
Red Herring website outage an unfortunate coincidence
Alex Vieux's Red Herring isn't just poorly managed; it's unlucky as well. I just got off the phone with Vassil Mladjov, CEO of Blogtronix, the blog-software company which hosts RedHerring.com. He blames the site's outage — which comes the same week as the Herring's eviction from its offices and the cancellation of a Herring event in China — on a bug involving log files, and says the site will be back up shortly. Mladjov adds that unpaid bills aren't the issue; Blogtronix arranged to get paid through a barter deal. -
deathwatch
Red Herring cancels China event with one week's notice
Red Herring's magazine has not been regularly printed in ages. Today, its its website has been displaying error messages — not that readers are missing much of the understaffed RedHerring.com's output. Herring's conference business alone has been sustaining Alex Vieux's rocky tech-publishing empire. But that, too, seems to be falling apart. A commenter has posted what he claims is an email from Vieux announcing the cancellation of next week's Red Herring Wireless conference in Beijing. At first it struck me as ludicrous that Vieux would cancel one of his cash-cow events. But I called the host hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Beijing, and staff there confirmed that the event was off. Vieux's email cites "difficult personal family health problems" as the reason. If true, it is most unlucky for Vieux that these health issues just happened to coincide with an eviction from Herring's Belmont headquarters. More » -
crime
Did Red Herring employees break into their old office?
A call to Red Herring publisher Alex Vieux through his old office line, 650 428 2900, was answered today by a man with an Eastern European accent who said Vieux wasn't there. Why was anyone there to answer the phone? Yesterday, the Herring's landlord sent a locksmith, an attorney, and sheriff's deputies to evict Vieux from the building, prompting a hasty exit. Vieux claims he has a new office, but wouldn't give out its address. If so, it's possible Vieux had the phone line forwarded there. But it's also possible, a former employee says, that Herring employees broke into their former office: "I wouldn't be shocked if Vieux & Co. just went in through one of the side doors that is not well secured." Wouldn't that be trespassing, though? -
deathwatch
Startups brag about homeless Herring honor
The news of Red Herring's eviction from its office has not given the Valley's PR machine even a momentary pause. At last count, 89 press releases have hit Google News touting some startup's listing on the Red Herring 100 North America. What none disclose: Whether they paid Red Herring to be included on the list. Several companies have told Valleywag that publisher Alex Vieux emailed them after naming them as "finalists" for the Herring 100, suggesting that they buy event tickets or pay for a promotional video. Vieux's landlord must be flabbergasted that despite these surely lucrative quid-pro-quo awards, Vieux still wasn't able to pay his rent. -
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deathwatch
Alex Vieux to publish Red Herring from undisclosed location
The delusional Alex Vieux's powers of spin are prodigious. He has characterized the eviction of Red Herring, his tottering tech-publishing enterprise, from its Belmont office to News.com as an "economic decision." An economic decision which involved a locksmith, the landlord's attorney, and assorted sheriff's deputies. Normally, working out a rent dispute doesn't require officers of the peace. Were Vieux to be convicted of a crime and jailed, would he describe his sentence as a "period of voluntary seclusion"? (We speak theoretically, of course.) He also told News.com that he had secured a new office, but would not say where it is. -
deathwatch
Sheriff's deputies evict Red Herring from Belmont office
Red Herring, the once-storied, now marginal tech publisher, was evicted from its Belmont office at 19 Davis Drive at 3:04 p.m. today, a spokesman for the San Mateo County Sheriff's office confirmed to Valleywag. This is a phenomenal comeuppance for publisher Alex Vieux, who has heretofore displayed an amazing ability to dodge creditors and talk his way out of paying bills. We're told that employees left through the back door and gathered in the parking lot, hoping that the sheriff's deputies would not confiscate their laptops, too. More » -
deathwatch
Hard-up Herring shakes down startups
At Red Herring, every startup is a winner — but publisher Alex Vieux is the one who takes the prize. Indeed, handing out prizes seems to be the main way Vieux is keeping it afloat. The once-vital technology publisher, which Vieux has all but run into the ground, no longer prints a magazine. A tipster says healthcare for its workers has been cancelled for nonpayment. Its website, which used to mostly carry wire copy, now produces a pitiful handful of stories each day. But the Herring is still flopping around with an events business. The next one, Red Herring 100 North America, due to be held in San Jose later this month, will celebrate 100 startups of Vieux's choosing. And how does he select them from a list of 204 finalists? A come-on email and phone call one startup received is revealing: More » -
deathwatch
Red Herring video team quits en masse
Why is Red Herring hiring five videographers for its already launched Red Herring TV? Because the current team, led by journalist Sean Wolfe, pictured here mid-interview, quit on publisher Alex Vieux. The mass resignation was prompted by another one of Vieux's tirades, but Wolfe and his colleagues also cited erratic pay and a decline in journalistic standards. Their claim: Vieux was trying to turn the video group into a production house for promotional clips custom-made for event sponsors. Anyone thinking about taking the video gig at Red Herring TV would do well to read their resignation letter: More »
red herring
San Francisco, 2:44 PM
Thu Dec 4
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