Automatic Media's first acquisition was Alt.culture, an online encyclopedia of alternative culture focused primarily on internet fads.
Automatic Media allowed its member sites to use a shared advertising sales force, technologies, and administrative resources.
Less than a year after its foundation, Automatic Media's subsidiaries declared bankruptcy, citing "an inability to secure additional financing".
[3] It was also announced that Plastic would continue with a skeleton staff working pro bono, although its fate was uncertain until bought by one of suck's original founders Carl Steadman.
The failure of these sites disproved the common notion that the World Wide Web would make it easy for independent media sites to publish and distribute content for cheap compared with the cost of putting out print magazines.