Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming tutorials, reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements.
History
edit1940s–1950s
editSources:.[1]
- Mathematics of Computation established in 1943, articles about computers began to appear from 1946 (Volume 2, Number 15) to the end of 1954.[note 1] Scientific journal.
- Digital Computer Newsletter,[2] (1949–1968), founded by Albert Eugene Smith.
- Computers and People, (1951–1988[3]), was arguably the first computer magazine. It began as Roster of Organizations in the Field of Automatic Computing Machinery (1951–1952),[4][5][note 2] and then The Computing Machinery Field (1952–1953).[6] It was published by Edmund Berkeley. Computers and Automation held the first Computer Art Contest in 1963[7] and maintained a bibliography on computer art starting in 1966.[8] It also included a monthly estimated census of all installed computer systems starting in 1962.[9] In 1973 name changed to Computers and Automation and People, and finally in 1975 to Computers and People.[3]
- AFIPS conference proceedings[10] (AFIPS Joint Computer Conferences) (1952–1987).
- ACM National Conference proceedings (Proceedings of National Meetings) (1952, 1956–1987, 1997)[11][note 3][1]
- IEEE Transactions on Computers from 1952, scientific journal.
- Computing News (1953–1963[12]), was an early computer magazine produced by Jackson W. Granholm out of Thousand Oaks, California. The first documented copyright was applied for on September 1, 1954, for issue #36. The magazine was released on the 1st and 15th of each month, which places issue #1 at March 15, 1953. The last documented release was issue #217 on March 15, 1962.[13][14][15]
- Journal of the ACM from 1954, scientific journal.
- Datamation from 1957, was another early computer and data processing magazine. It is still being published as an e-publication on the Internet. Futurist Donald Prell was its founder.
- Information and Computation from 1957, scientific journal.
- IBM Journal of Research and Development from 1957, scientific journal.
- Communications of the ACM from 1958, mix of science magazine, trade magazine, and a scientific journal
- The Computer Journal from 1958, scientific journal.
1960s–1970s
edit- ACS Newsletter (1966–1976), Amateur Computer Society newsletter.[16][17]
- Computerworld (1967)
- People's Computer Company Newsletter (1972–1981)
- Amateur Computer Club Newsletter (ACCN; 1973–)
- Dr. Dobb's Journal (1976–2014) was the first microcomputer magazine to focus on software, rather than hardware.
1980s
edit1980s computer magazines skewed their content towards the hobbyist end of the then-microcomputer market, and used to contain type-in programs, but these have gone out of fashion. The first magazine devoted to this class of computers was Creative Computing. Byte was an influential technical journal that published until the 1990s.
In 1983, an average of one new computer magazine appeared each week.[18] By late that year more than 200 existed. Their numbers and size grew rapidly with the industry they covered, and BYTE and 80 Micro were among the three thickest magazines of any kind per issue.[19] Compute!'s editor in chief reported in the December 1983 issue that "all of our previous records are being broken: largest number of pages, largest-number of four-color advertising pages, largest number of printing pages, and the largest number of editorial pages".[20]
Computers were the only industry with product-specific magazines, like 80 Micro, PC Magazine, and Macworld; their editors vowed to impartially cover their computers whether or not doing so hurt their readers' and advertisers' market, while claiming that their rivals pandered to advertisers by only publishing positive news.[21]
BYTE, in March 1984, apologized for publishing articles by authors with promotional material for companies without describing them as such, and in April suggested that other magazines adopt its rules of conduct for writers, such as prohibiting employees from accepting gifts or discounts.
InfoWorld stated in June that many of the "150 or so" industry magazines published articles without clearly identifying authors' affiliations and conflicts of interest.
Around 1985, many magazines ended. However, as their number exceeded the amount of available advertising revenue despite revenue in the first half of the year five times that of the same period in 1982. Consumers typically bought computer magazines more for advertising than articles, which benefited already leading journals like BYTE and PC Magazine and hurt weaker ones. Also affecting magazines was the computer industry's economic difficulties, including the video game crash of 1983, which badly hurt the home-computer market.
Dan Gutman, the founder of Computer Games, recalled in 1987 that "the computer games industry crashed and burned like a bad night of Flight Simulator—with my magazine on the runway". Antic's advertising sales declined by 50% in 90 days, Compute!'s number of pages declined from 392 in December 1983 to 160 ten months later, and Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette's publisher assured readers in an editorial that his company "is and continues to be quite successful ... even during these particularly difficult times in the industry". Computer Gaming World stated in 1988 that it was the only one of the 18 color magazines that covered computer games in 1983 to survive the crash. Compute! similarly stated that year that it was the only general-interest survivor of about 150 consumer-computing magazines published in 1983.
Some computer magazines in the 1980s and 1990s were issued only on disk (or cassette tape, or CD-ROM) with no printed counterpart; such publications are collectively (though somewhat inaccurately) known as disk magazines and are listed separately.
1990s
editIn some ways the heyday of printed computer magazines was a period during the 1990s, in which a large number of computer manufacturers took out advertisements in computer magazines, so they became quite thick and could afford to carry quite a number of articles in each issue. Computer Shopper was a good example of this trend.
Some printed computer magazines used to include covermount floppy disks, CDs, or other media as inserts; they typically contained software, demos, and electronic versions of the print issue.
2000s–2010s
editHowever, with the rise in popularity of the Internet, many computer magazines went bankrupt or transitioned to an online-only existence. Exceptions include Wired, which is more of a technology magazine than a computer magazine.
List of computer magazines
editNotable regular contributors to print computer magazines
edit| Name | Occupation | Magazines (years of regular contributions) |
|---|---|---|
| Programmer | Unix Review (1980s–1990s) | |
| TV comedian, TV reviewer, newspaper columnist | PC Zone (1990s) | |
| Science fiction author | Ahoy!, Compute! | |
| Game designer | BYTE, Computer Gaming World | |
| Paralegal, legal blogger | Linux User, others | |
| Writer, consultant, programmer, songwriter | UNIX Review (1984–2000), OS/2 Magazine, Software Development | |
| Professor, investor | Wired magazine (1993–1998) | |
| Science fiction author | BYTE (1980–2006) | |
| Game scriptwriter, journalist | PC Zone | |
| Security specialist, writer, cryptographer | Wired magazine | |
| Science fiction and fantasy author | Computer Shopper (UK magazine) (1994–2004) | |
| Writer, consultant, programmer | Dr. Dobb's Journal, Byte, etc. |
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ In 1955, the "Automatic Computing Machinery" column was removed, but the full-length articles about computers still continued to appear with varying frequency.
- ^ Alternative title: Roster of Organizations in the Computing Machinery Field.
- ^ First published in 1952, regular publication started in 1964 (Publications in computing: an informal review, p. 494).
References
edit- ^ a b Weiss, Eric A. (1972-07-01). "Publications in computing: an informal review". Communications of the ACM. 15 (7): 491–497. doi:10.1145/361454.361456. ISSN 0001-0782. S2CID 27504743.
- ^ "Cyber Brief: Digital Computer Newsletter — 1949–1968 | National Security Archive". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
- ^ a b Sternadori, Miglena; Holmes, Tim (2020). The Handbook of Magazine Studies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-119-15152-4.
- ^ The Computing Machinery Field. Edmund C. Berkeley and Associates. 1953. p. 7.
- ^ Roster of Organizations in the Field of Automatic Computing Machinery 1952-07-20: Vol 1 Iss 3. Berkeley Enterprises. 1952-07-20.
- ^ "Computers and People". Berkeley Enterprises. 1957: 111.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Computer Art Contest". compArt daDA. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
- ^ The BITSAVERS.ORG Documents Library: Computers and Automation Journal
- ^ computersAndAutomation :: Computer Census 1962-74. 1962–1974.
- ^ "AFIPS conference proceedings". onesearch.library.uwa.edu.au. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
- ^ "ACM-NATIONAL-CONFERENCE Conference - Proceedings". ACM Digital Library. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ Limited, National Computing Centre (1970). A World List of Computer Periodicals. National Computing Centre. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-85012-029-5.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Lost Media Wiki article containing U.S Copyright Office catalog scans
- ^ Computing News Issue #216 from March 1st, 1962
- ^ Computing News Issue #217 from March 15th, 1962
- ^ Amateur Computer Society newsletter, 1966-1976
- ^ "Amateur Computer Society Newsletter | 102654910 | Computer History Museum". www.computerhistory.org.
Claims to be "the first hobby-computer publication in the world."
- ^ Berg, Eric N. (8 September 1984). "The Computer Magazine Glut". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
- ^ "Boom in Computer Magazines". The New York Times. 9 November 1983. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
- ^ Lock, Robert (December 1983). "Editor's Notes". Compute!. p. 6.
- ^ Bartimo, Jim (10 December 1984). "Magazines Woo Users". InfoWorld. pp. 35–36. Retrieved 14 March 2011.