Computer magazine

This article is about computer magazines in general. For the magazine published by IEEE, see Computer (magazine).

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

1970s-1980s

Dr Dobbs Journal is one of the oldest computer magazines still being published, and it was the first to focus on software, rather than hardware.

1980s 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.

By late 1983 more than 200 computer magazines 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. 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. Many magazines, however, did not survive 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. 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

In 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 (UK magazine) was a good example of this trend). Some printed computer magazines used to include floppy disks, CD-ROMs, or other media as inserts; they typically contained software, demos, and electronic versions of the print issue.

2000s-2010s

However, with the rise in popularity of the internet, many computer magazines went bankrupt or transitioned to an online-only existence. Exceptions include Wired magazine, which is more of a technology magazine than a computer magazine.

List of computer magazines

Main article: List of computer magazines

Notable regular contributors to print computer magazines

Name	Occupation(s)	Magazine(s) (years of regular contributions)
Ken Arnold	Programmer	Unix Review (1980s - 1990s)
Charlie Brooker	TV comedian, TV reviewer, newspaper columnist	PC Zone (1990s)
Orson Scott Card	Science fiction author	Ahoy!, Compute!
Chris Crawford	Game designer	BYTE, Computer Gaming World
Pamela Jones	Paralegal, legal blogger	Linux User, others
Stan Kelly-Bootle	Writer, consultant, programmer, songwriter	UNIX Review (1984 - 2000), OS/2 Magazine, Software Development
Nicholas Negroponte	Professor, investor	Wired magazine (1993 - 1998)
Jerry Pournelle	Science fiction author	BYTE (1980 - 2006)
Rhianna Pratchett	Game scriptwriter, journalist	PC Zone
Bruce Schneier	Security specialist, writer, cryptographer	Wired magazine
Charles Stross	Science fiction and fantasy author	Computer Shopper (UK magazine) (1994-2004)