“And so it came to pass that on November 19th, 2008 publisher Ziff Davis announced that PC Magazine–in the print version that gave it its name–was going to the great newsstand in the sky. When it gets there, it’ll have plenty of company: Most of the most important tech magazines ever published are no more, victims of the periodic industry shakeouts that are almost as old as the industry itself,” Harry McCracken writes for Technologizer.
McCracken writes, “Herewith, a look at a dozen tech publications that don’t exist anymore (in print form, at least–some are still with us online). All of them were significant in one way or another, all had loyal readerships who mourned their loss, and most were terrific magazines, period. It’s in chronological order by the year of founding. And no, I didn’t include PC Mag: It’s got one more issue to go and therefore isn’t a defunct tech magazine just yet.”
McCracken’s Twelve Greatest Defunct Tech Magazines Ever:
• Popular Electronics (1954-1985)
• Creative Computing (1974-1985)
• Byte (1975-1998)
• InfoWorld (1978-2007)
• Compute! (1979-1994)
• 80/Microcomputing (1980-1988)
• Computer Gaming World (1981-2008)
• .info (1983-1992)
• MacUser (1985-1997)
• PC/Computing (1988-2002)
• Upside (1989-2002)
• The Industry Standard (1998-2001)
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d add MacAddict (1996-2007*) to the list — especially the early years, before they lost their edge (not counting the AutoStart 9805 Worm incident).
*MacAddict was rebranded Mac|Life in February 2007.
AmigaWorld
@ DRM Sucks: Good for you. I continued my subscription after the rebrand, happend to prepay a twoyear subscription when it still was called MacAddict, and I regretted (word?) it everytime I got an issue. Aparently some readers like the new mag but I really cant see why. Mac|Life is just a reprint of the latest articles that are on the maclife.com plus some little extras and lots of adds, including pc-adds.
I miss MacAddict too, that mag was fun and I looked forward to each new one.
Macweek was THE best source for real mac news in the bleek years when we prayed that apple would survive through the Spindler and Amelio era.
MacUser is still printed here in the UK, it arrives through my letterbox every 2 weeks… unless I have been hallucinating?
What about Compute! Magazine?
I have many fond memories of kicking back with my Atari 800 spending hours and hours typing in BASIC code for games.
The good old days… before Microsoft came in and ruined everything.
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Please ignore my last comment.
Compute! is of course on the list.
Oops!
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Back in the mid-80s, I wrote articles for PC Products magazine. I was their UNIX guy.
My most challenging project was comparing nine different UNIX V work-a-likes all running on a 286 class processor with three terminals. Talk about “dog slow.”
Those were the days; trying to create a mini-computer on a machine suitable as a garage door opener.
MacUser UK still seems to be rolling.
My own old-fave was the stylish sci-fi-meets-tech OMNI.
I’ve recycled so…. many piles of tech mags, mountains of them really. Loved MacWeek, read all sort of trades from Byte to InfoWorld. However I’m still holding onto v1#1 of both MacWorld and MacUser. The only other old mags that out rate my tech stuff is Whole Earth Review and Co-Evolution Quarterly. Saved every issue and still go back to them. Thinking of framing the v1#1 mac covers though for my new office that I’ll be moving into right about the time of my 25th anniversary of owning, using and loving Macs.
Looking to part with much of the old Macs that I’ve piled up over the past 25. Hard to part with such steady and profitable companions. Especially ones I laid out so much money on.
Besides I rue the day I passed on my MacPlus that had started life as a 128 with all the sigs inside. Helped a friend launch her business with it so it served well and mighty.
Time to let go of all the old powerbooks and more. If the things died it would be easy but the stuff get obsolete long before it dies. Just found the box my that new keyboard came in from Apple in 86. Thinking it was when Apple switched from the phone plug cord?
How bout Big Blue Disk!
I add my vote to DStempnakowski’s. SOFTALK belongs on that list.
Nibble was good.
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I have all the NeXTWorld somewhere, with a couple of copies of NeXTStep.
Also have a box of Byte magazines. The ads are great! Want to buy an 8 inch floppy drive for $500?
Beagle Bros. catalogs, I remember those!
The Merlin Assembly editor was awesome.
There was a mag called K-Power back in the early 80s that I used to buy. Not so much for its kiddie content, but for the program listings in the back of each issue. I remember typing in line by stinking line of the game Destroyus on our school’s TRASH-80 Model 3. Now if I could find that listing somewhere….
I don’t remember how many issues that one printed before folding. Another great, less tech mag I bought was Electronic Games (not EGM).
Compute! I loved that. Industry Standard was a thrill to read every week; their problem was that they started to believe the hype they were printing.