''Computergram International'' was a daily, pre-Internet newsletter covering enterprise information technology, published in London by APT Data Services from 1984. It eventually merged into the electronic ''ComputerWire'' service, and is now owned by ''Tech Monitor'', one of the specialist titles within the
New Statesman
''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
Media Group.
['Computer Business Review Has Some News…']
''Tech Monitor'', 10 March, 2021
APT Data Services
APT Data Services was founded in London by Peter White (publisher) and Tim Palmer (editor) in 1984. Peter White was previously the editor of ''Datalink Magazine'' from 1978. Palmer had worked as an engineer at
GEC before changing course and starting his publishing career as a journalist on ''
Computer Weekly
''Computer Weekly'' is a digital magazine and website for IT professionals in the United Kingdom owned by Informa TechTarget. It was formerly published as a weekly print magazine by Reed Business Information for over 50 years. Topics covered wit ...
''. He then moved to the UK division of Dutch publishing company
VNU and its then weekly title ''Infomatics''. It was Palmer who persuaded VNU to launch an ''Infomatics'' spin-off title, ''Infomatics Daily Bulletin'', in 1980.
[ Four years later White and Palmer formed their own company to publish a rival daily, ''Computergram International'', five days a week. Subscriptions were priced at £450 per year.][Jack Schofield. 'All the news too late to print', in ''The Guardian'', 1 November 1984, p. 21]
The first issue, published on 13 August 1984, included a report detailing the forthcoming launch of the IBM PC AT
The IBM Personal Computer AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 802 ...
on the following day. Among the subscribers was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...
, who was heard to describe the publication as “that little yellow sheet”.[ The four (and occasionally six or eight) page newsletter was published, printed and mailed from APT's London offices on the top floor of 12 Sutton Row in ]Soho
SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
. It was also available on early electronic public access databases such as Micronet 800, Prestel
Prestel was the Brand#Brand names and trademark, brand name of a videotex service launched in the UK in 1979 by BT Group#Post Office Telecommunications, Post Office Telecommunications, a division of the British Post Office Limited#History, Po ...
and Telecom Gold,[ and then via the ]World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...
from the early 1990s.
APT Data subsequently launched a series of other IT titles, including the weekly ''Unigram.x'' newsletter (covering the rise of the Unix
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
operating system), and the monthly ''Computer Business Review'', ''Software Futures'' and ''Unix News'' magazines. By 1997 the company name and website had changed from APT to ComputerWire. The last paper copy of ''Computergram International'' was printed in April 1998, though the electronic service continued well into the 2000s. A core team of APT editors left the company at the end of 1999 to form the IT industry analyst firm The 451 Group.
Sale to Datamonitor
Tim Palmer died in 1997.Guy Kewney
Guy Johan Kewney (30 April 1946 – 8 April 2010) was a British journalist, regarded by some as the first UK technology journalist.Manek Dubash"Guy Kewney: Integrity in socks and sandals" ''The Register'', 12 April 2010
Early life
Kewney's orig ...
'Tim Palmer, greatest computer press reporter, is dead'
ZDNET, 5 June 1997[ ''Tech Monitor '' is now part of the New Statesman Media Group (owned by Mike Danson, as Datamonitor was before its sale to ]Informa
Informa plc is a British publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
It has offices in 30 countries and around 12,000 ...
in 2007).
In 2003 Peter White launched an industry analyst company, Rethink Technology Research. He died in September 2023.[Matthew Gooding]
'Computer Business Review founder Peter White dies'
''Techmonitor.ai'', 19 September, 2023
References
{{Authority control
Pre–World Wide Web online services
1984 establishments in the United Kingdom
Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1984
Online magazines with defunct print editions
British technology news websites
Computer magazines published in the United Kingdom
Online magazines published in the United Kingdom
Science and technology magazines published in the United Kingdom