Pathfinder was a landing page with links to various

Time Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

websites. In its initial form, Pathfinder was one of the first

web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

s, created as

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

's entry onto the Internet. The objective of Pathfinder was to be an all-encompassing site that brought the best content from all of Time Warner under one banner.

History

The site opened on October 24, 1994, with a small content team led by

Paul Sagan Paul Sagan (born 1959) is an American businessman and managing partner at General Catalyst Partners. A three-time Emmy award winner for broadcast journalism in New York, Sagan began his career at WCBS-TV as a news writer and news director. Joinin ...

Walter Isaacson Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and professor. He has been the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., the chair and CEO of CNN, ...

, James Kinsella,

Bruce Judson Bruce Judson (born 1958 in New York City) is an American author, media innovator, and public policy analyst. Education Judson attended Dartmouth College and received a bachelor's degree in Policy Studies in 1980. In 1984, he received a Juris D ...

, Craig Bromberg, Oliver Knowlton, and Curt Viebranz. The team grew rapidly to service a growing list of internal "content partners" - at its highest point, these "content partners" numbered 80. Most of these content partners were Time Inc. magazines such as Time, People, Fortune and others, but others came from the widely distributed Time Warner corporate empire. Pathfinder.com was controversial within Time Warner. Many content partners were unhappy with the fact Pathfinder's existence prevented them from using their own URLs. For example, People Magazine was not allowed to use the domain "people.com," but was instead restricted to a directory on Pathfinder (pathfinder.com/people/). Pathfinder's own staff were shocked when Time Inc. senior manager Don Logan publicly derided Pathfinder.com at an external analyst's meeting as a "black hole" of unprofitability. Pathfinder went through many managers and editors in its short life, and suffered from high staff turnover rates, especially after it became clear to many that its future was highly uncertain. Many early tech journalists and writers passed through its doors, including

, James Kinsella (

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

Daniel Okrent Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and editing, editor. He is best known for having served as the first public editor of ''The New York Times'' newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, and for writing several books ( ...

, John R. Quain (CBS News

Up to the Minute ''CBS Overnight News'' is an American overnight news broadcasting that is broadcast on CBS during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday. The program maintains a infotainment format, incorporating national, international and business ...

and J-Q on Technology), John Voelcker (GreenCarReports.com),

Josh Quittner Josh Quittner (born February 12, 1957) is an American journalist. Quittner is CEO of Decrypt Media, a leading independent publication covering the world of Web 3.0, cryptocurrency, NFTs and more. Born in Manhattan, Quittner grew up in Reading, ...

Lev Grossman Lev Grossman (born June 26, 1969) is an American novelist and journalist who wrote ''The Magicians Trilogy'': '' The Magicians'' (2009), '' The Magician King'' (2011), and '' The Magician's Land'' (2014). He was the book critic and lead technolog ...

Maura Johnston Maura K. Johnston (born May 28, 1975) is a writer, editor and music critic. A member of Boston College's journalism faculty, she has written for ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''Pitchfork'', ''The Awl'', ''The New York Times'', ''Spin' ...

and Steven Petrow. The site was closed in April 1999, and was widely considered to be an expensive failure. Some claim that Pathfinder cost Time Inc. between $100 and $120 million. Some analysts believe that Pathfinder's failure led Time Warner's senior managers to conclude that it was impossible to run a successful Internet portal, and this judgement led directly to Time Warner pursuing its eventual merger with AOL, a merger which unsuccessfully sought to generate "synergy" between the two corporate giants. Pathfinder.com transitioned to a landing page, with links to Time Inc.'s other sites.Time Warner to shutter Pathfinder
Cnet News, April 26, 1999

References

External links

Archive of front pages (only entries from April 1999 and earlier show Pathfinder)Ghost Sites' The Pathfinder.com MuseumIn The Pathfinder Basement
Defunct American websites Internet properties disestablished in 1999 Internet properties established in 1994 1994 establishments in the United States Web portals {{web-stub