In This Issue

New Mexico Business Journal, Sept, 2000

Not too many years ago, technological prognosticators were assuring us that we were on our way to a wired world where communications among people was virtually instantaneous and libraries and archives of information were available to all. And so they were right, in spades. With the Internet, the world is your oyster.

On the other hand, how do you go about separating the information wheat from the information chaff, taking care not to throw away the wheat? When you're in information overload, it's a neat trick.

Which is why magazines like the New Mexico Business Journal, like Timex watches, keep on ticking. Our niche, as it were, is narrow. What we care about, obviously, is business in New Mexico and we try to stick to our last. This isn't to say we're ignoring the Internet; on the contrary: our electronic edition (www.nmbiz.com) has been online for nearly four years, which is a long, long, time). And if you care about business in New Mexico, we're the principal source of thoughtful information.

Each month we serve up articles and columns on subjects that elsewhere might get the once-over-lightly treatment. And in this issue, for example, I'd like to call your attention to several articles that I think will be worth your time.

A decade ago, our health system was a model of efficiency. Now it's in trouble. Doctors are frustrated. Administrators are trying to keep things together. Patients are frazzled. And we're paying more and more for the privilege. Shawn Shepherd takes a hard look. It's not a pretty picture.

Also a decade ago, as far as venture capital firms were concern, New Mexico was a vast wasteland despite the looming presence of those massive engines of technological creativity, the national laboratories. Happily, the VC folks have finally discovered us and, according to Catherine Coggan, are bullish. Also bullish are many accounting firms who, these days, are doing a lot more than auditing your financial statements and doing your tax returns. Just as banks are discovering new lines of business, so are accounting firms, as Paige McKenzie notes in her article.

I hope you enjoy them, as well as the other article in this month's Business Journal.

LARRY W. POE

PUBLISHER