Computer magazines are about

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

s and related subjects, such as

networking Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming tutorials, reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements.

History

1940s–1950s

*'' Mathematics of Computation'' established in 1943, articles about computers began to appear from 1946 (Volume 2, Number 15) to the end of 1954. Scientific journal. *''Digital Computer Newsletter'', (1949–1968), founded by Albert Eugene Smith. *''Computers and Automation'', (1951–1978), was arguably the first computer magazine. It began as ''Roster of Organizations in the Computing Machinery Field'' (1951–1952), and then ''The Computing Machinery Field'' (1952–1953). It was published by Edmund Berkeley. ''Computers and Automation'' held the first Computer Art Contest circa 1963 and maintained a bibliography on computer art starting in 1966. It also included a monthly estimated census of all installed computer systems starting in 1962. *''

IEEE Transactions on Computers ''IEEE Transactions on Computers'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of computer design. It was established in 1952 and is published by the IEEE Computer Society. The editor-in-chief is Ahmed Louri, David and Mari ...

'' from 1952, scientific journal. *''Computing News'' (1953-1962?), was an early computer magazine produced by Jackson W. Granholm out of Thousand Oaks, California. The first documented copyright was applied for on September 1st, 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. *'' 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 ePublication 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 ''Communications of the ACM'' is the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). It was established in 1958, with Saul Rosen as its first managing editor. It is sent to all ACM members. Articles are intended for readers wi ...

'' from 1958, mix of science magazine,

trade magazine A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for t ...

, and a scientific journal *'' The Computer Journal'' from 1958, scientific journal.

1960s–1970s

*''ACS Newsletter'' (1966–1976), Amateur Computer Society newsletter. * '' 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

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 The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

'' was an influential technical journal that published until the 1990s. In 1983 an average of one new computer magazine appeared each week. 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. '' 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". 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. ''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 ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...

'' stated in June that many of the "150 or so" industry magazines published articles without clearly identifying authors' affiliations and conflicts of interest. Many magazines ended that year, 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 Dan Gutman (born October 19, 1955) is an American writer, primarily of children's fiction. His works include the '' Baseball Card Adventures'' children's book series that began with '' Honus & Me'', and the '' My Weird School'' series. Early li ...

, the founder of ''Computer Games'', recalled in 1987 that "the computer games industry crashed and burned like a bad night of ''

Flight Simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they re ...

''—with my magazine on the runway". '' Antic''s advertising sales declined by 50% in 90 days, ''Compute!'' 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 magazine A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag or diskzine, is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence t ...

s'' 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'' 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 Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

, demos, and electronic versions of the print issue.

2000s–2010s

However, with the rise in popularity of the

, 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

Notable regular contributors to print computer magazines

{, class="wikitable sortable" ! Name ! Occupation ! Magazines (years of regular contributions) , - , Ken Arnold , Programmer , ''

Unix Review ''UNIX Review'' was an American magazine covering technical aspects of the UNIX operating system and C programming. Recognized for its in-depth technical analysis, the journal also reported on industry confabs and included some lighter fare. His ...

'' (1980s–1990s) , - ,

Charlie Brooker Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...

, TV comedian, TV reviewer, newspaper columnist , '' PC Zone'' (1990s) , - , Orson Scott Card , Science fiction author , '' Ahoy!'', '' Compute!'' , - , Chris Crawford , Game designer , ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

'', '' Computer Gaming World'' , - ,

Pamela Jones Pamela Jones, commonly known as PJ, is the creator and was editor of Groklaw, a website that covered legal news of interest to the free and open-source software community. Jones is an Open Source advocate who previously trained and worked as a ...

, Paralegal, legal blogger , '' Linux User'', others , - ,

Stan Kelly-Bootle Stanley Bootle, known as Stan Kelly-Bootle (15 September 1929 – 16 April 2014), was a British author, academic, singer-songwriter and computer scientist. He took his stage name Stan Kelly (he was not known as Stan Kelly-Bootle in folk music circ ...

, Writer, consultant, programmer, songwriter , ''

UNIX Review ''UNIX Review'' was an American magazine covering technical aspects of the UNIX operating system and C programming. Recognized for its in-depth technical analysis, the journal also reported on industry confabs and included some lighter fare. His ...

'' (1984–2000), ''OS/2 Magazine'', ''Software Development'' , - , Nicholas Negroponte , Professor, investor , '' Wired magazine'' (1993–1998) , - , Jerry Pournelle , Science fiction author , ''

'' (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) , - , {{flagicon, US Don Lancaster , Writer, consultant, programmer , ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'', ''Byte'', etc.

References

Magazine Magazine genres