There was a time in my career when getting a Ziff Davis 'Recommended Buy' award was as powerful as having Delia Smith use or mention your product on her TV show. A good or bad ZD review could almost make or break a product.

In fact it was so powerful in my time at Tektronix that we used to put the Gold Award or Recommended Buy logo on all our advertising and even ran an ad of all the awards we had won in Europe under the headline 'Great colour but don't take our word for it'. Our 'Grand Slam' was to get the top slot in the reviews in the French, German and English editions. We did that on more than one occasion I remember.

Now the news via Podcasting News that ZD is bankrupt due to falling demand for advertising.

The fall off in advertising revenue has been huge from a high of $215m in 2001 to last years figure of $40m.