Glassdoor received a nice review in the February issue of Portfolio (unquestionably the best business magazine on the newsstand today). In ‘Best of Times,’ Kevin Maney explores the impact of the current recession on the prospects for start-ups in Silicon Valley. As evidence that good companies can succeed in any environment, and particularly in tough times given the dearth of competition and the abundance of cheap talent, not to mention all the excess office equipment available for pennies on the dollar, the article cites Glassdoor’s recent raise of $6.5M from Sutter Hill Ventures.

I’d firmly echo Maney’s conclusion that a challenging economy presents an ideal opportunity for solid companies with a strong value proposition, not only for the reasons cited above but also because of the discipline, focus, and tenaciousness that is required. If companies can sell and grow in this environment, they will thrive in the better days ahead.

In the November edition of Portfolio (the best business magazine in the market), Kevin Maney interviews Netscape, Loudcloud, and Ning founder Marc Andreessen. Never a big fan of daily newspapers, Andreessen had this advice for the New York Times:

If you were running the New York Times, what would you do?
Shut off the print edition right now. You’ve got to play offense. You’ve got to do what Intel did in ’85 when it was getting killed by the Japanese in memory chips, which was its dominant business. And it famously killed the business—shut it off and focused on its much smaller business, microprocessors, because that was going to be the market of the future. And the minute Intel got out of playing defense and into playing offense, its future was secure. The newspaper companies have to do exactly the same thing.

The financial markets have discounted forward to the terminal conclusion for newspapers, which is basically bankruptcy. So at this point, if you’re one of these major newspapers and you shut off the printing press, your stock price would probably go up, despite the fact that you would lose 90 percent of your revenue. Then you play offense. And guess what? You’re an internet company.

The question is, which daily paper will have the courage to take Andreessen’s advice? Or more likely, which daily newspaper will have no choice but to shut down the print side of its business?

This is the most incredible Lego sculpture I have ever seen. The artist is Nathan Sawaya, and the full story can be found at Portfolio.com.

In the October issue of Portfolio magazine, an article by Sheelah Kolhatkar covers at some length the recent investment in the New York Times by Harbinger Capital Management, a hedge fund founded by the Harbert family of Alabama. The article is fascinating for a variety of reasons, among which is the internal family issues surrounding the Harbert family and their wealth. But the article also provides interesting details about the way the fund is approaching their 20% stake in the Times’ class A shares (worth about $360 million).

One quote in particular caught my attention and made me chuckle out loud. It comes from Scott Galloway, a New York University marketing professor best known as the founder of internet retailer Red Envelope. Galloway and his company, Firebrand Partners, have acted as the public face of Harbinger’s investment in the Times in exchange for 10% of the profits. His investment thesis centers around his belief that the New York Times brand is grossly undervalued and that the company should be thought of as ‘Yahoo with content.’ But in describing the rest of the industry, Galloway states:

“Let me be clear: I think the [daily] newspaper business is a shitty business. The Sacramento Bee, the Chicago Tribune – I think a lot of those newspapers are fucked.”

A rather blunt yet accurate assessment and one with which I could not agree more.

Once again, I’ve voraciously made my way through yet another excellent issue of Portfolio Magazine. This cross between Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal is always interesting, always informative, and always entertaining. In the September issue, there are two articles of particular note. The first is on Jeff Zucker and his tenure at the helm of NBC. The second article provides a range of ideas on how to save network TV. They are both well worth the read.

At any rate, the Zucker article describes the media mogul’s unique frankness in openly describing the fears, challenges, risks, and uncertainties he and his peers face in navigating through the drastically altered, constantly shifting media and technology landscape. Zucker states, “I would rather be honest about the realities of this business, whereas so many people want to just sweep that under the rug and perpetuate what has been. Look, we don’t know what’s gonna work. Predicting what the media world is gonna look like in 8 years is incredibly daunting. I defy anybody to do that.”