I spent a year with an archive at Digital Railroad. It was a year in which I wasn’t overly impressed with the service, so when my August renewal came around, I opted out and shut my account, saving US $50 per month. Now that the AU dollar has taken a downward dive, that looked like a smart move. But the smart move was in recognising a business that really didn’t care about it’s customers. Hence their somewhat unexpected announcement today, that has left many people in a lurch, for me wasn’t really a surprise at all.

From the Digital Railroad homepage:

October 28, 2008

To our valued Members and Partners:

We deeply regret to inform you that Digital Railroad (DRR) has shut down.

On October 15th we reported that the company had reduced its staff and was aggressively pursuing additional financing and/or a strategic partner. Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful. Therefore Digital Railroad has been forced to close all operations.

Digital Railroad has attracted a loyal set of customers and partners, and we regret this unfortunate outcome. Without sufficient long-term financial support, the business had become unsustainable.

Thank you for allowing us to serve the photographic community these past few years.

All questions pertaining to claims should be addressed to:

Digital Railroad, Inc
c/o Diablo Management Group
1452 N. Vasco Road, #301
Livermore, CA 94551

If you’re in any way concerned about where the business of traditional media is heading (read: your job), Terry Heaton at DigitalJournalist.com puts forward a compelling account of how we got here and where it’s all heading:

Local media companies have frolicked in a world of easy money for decades — sitting back and taking orders from deep pockets who needed us to get their message out. Along the way, many mixed the mission of media with double-digit revenue growth and came to the conclusion that this was the way it was meant to be — that owning a printing press or broadcast tower brought with it some inalienable right to easy profit. This, of course, made us sitting ducks for disruption.

Full article: Local Media on a Postmodern World: It’s Always About the Money.