''Acorn User'' magazine was founded by

Acorn Computers Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England in 1978 by Hermann Hauser, Christopher Curry (businessman), Chris Curry and Andy Hopper. The company produced a number of computers during the 1980s with asso ...

in 1982, contract-published by

Addison-Wesley Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...

, to coincide with the launch of the

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

. It covered the range of Acorn home computers, the BBC Micro and

Atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

at first and later the

Electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

and Risc PC.

History

The first issue was dated July/August 1982. From the April 1984 issue, the magazine came under the control of Redwood Publishing, a company recently founded by Michael Potter (a former publisher at

Haymarket Publishing Haymarket Media Group is a Privately held company, private media company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has publications in the consumer, business and customer sectors, both print and online. It operates exhibitions allied to its ...

), Christopher Ward (a former editor of the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

'' and a non-executive director of Acorn) and Chris Curry (one of the founders of Acorn).UK Magazine publishers (Reader's Digest to Reed to Ziff-Davis) on Magforum.com
/ref> In 1989, the name changed to ''BBC Acorn User'', reflecting the fact that the commercial arm of the BBC,

BBC Enterprises The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, took control of Redwood to expand its publishing activities. The magazine lost the BBC branding when it was sold to

Europress Europress was a British magazine and software publisher based in Adlington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications. The software division was renamed in 1999 to Actualize. Hi ...

, publisher of rival title '' Acorn Computing'', coinciding with its January 1994 issue. The magazine later incorporated ''Acorn Computing'' and ''Archimedes World'' magazines. Even when compatible hardware was released by RiscStation, Castle, MicroDigital, and Advantage 6 the magazine continued with the Acorn name whilst covering the extended range of hardware. In 2004 the magazine was acquired by Finnybank Ltd, which had previously purchased the

RISC OS RISC OS () is an operating system designed to run on ARM architecture, ARM computers. Originally designed in 1987 by Acorn Computers of England, it was made for use in its new line of ARM-based Acorn Archimedes, Archimedes personal computers an ...

Acorn Publisher magazine: the two magazines were replaced by ''Qercus'', edited by John Cartmell.

References

External links

Acorn User archive website
(featuring covers and full magazine scans) * Archived Acorn User magazines on the Internet Archive 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom 2005 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Home computer magazines Magazines established in 1982 Magazines disestablished in 2005 Magazines published in London {{UK-compu-mag-stub

History

See also

References

External links