''TWX'' was a

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 thi ...

published by the Long Lines Department of

AT&T Corporation AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...

. The magazine first appeared in June 1944 and was published sporadically, ceasing publication in March 1952 after 41 issues. ''TWX'' magazine took its name from the Teletypewriter Exchange Service, which was developed by AT&T Corp. in 1931. The TWX service was sold to

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

in 1969, but it remained an industry standard until 1981, when it was converted to the Telex II system. Free subscriptions to ''TWX'' magazine were offered to companies that were using AT&T's equipment and services. As such, the content tended to focus less on the technical aspects of telegraph/Teletype operations and more on practical usage in an office environment. Each issue featured industry news, product evaluations, and testimonials from office managers extolling the virtues of the teletypewriter. Although most of the articles were published without a byline, some of the magazine's content has been attributed to science-fiction writer

William Tenn William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass (May 9, 1920 – February 7, 2010), a British-born American science fiction author, notable for many stories with satirical elements. Biography Born to a Jewish family in London, Phillip Klass mo ...

, who was working as a technical editor for AT&T's

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

at the time. Although ''TWX'' magazine boasted a circulation of 8,000, most of that was due to its free circulation to AT&T's clients and partners. Few people actually read the magazine, and those that did accused it of being little more than "twenty pages of fluff and advertisements for products with a niche market at best". Although the TWX system itself remained viable for several decades, ''TWX'' magazine shut down in March 1952.

References

{{Reflist Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1944 Magazines disestablished in 1952 Professional and trade magazines English-language magazines Bimonthly magazines published in the United States AT&T Telephony House organs Magazines published in New Jersey 1944 establishments in New Jersey 1952 disestablishments in New Jersey

See also

References