R.I.P. PC Magazine

For those who came into the computer industry in the ’80s and ’90s, no other magazine tracked the business better than PC Magazine. PC Mag was the mother of all computer magazines.

PC Mag was launched as a monthly in 1982 just after the introduction of the IBM PC. More than any other magazine, it helped legitimize the microcomputer market, taking it from a quirky homegrown hobbyist market into a mainstream business and consumer product.

PC Mag grew alongside InfoWorld (a weekly trade paper), PC World, Personal ComputerWorld, and many other magazines worldwide, but PC Mag, with the backing of Ziff Davis, set the gold standard for detailed technical reviews and insightful news & editorial. Some issues came in at over 500 pages, as thick as Bride’s magazine! To deal with the rapid growth, PC Mag moved to a bi-weekly model. Circulation soared to a peak of 1.2 million readers with revenues around $300 million in the ’90s — larger than mainstream magazines like BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Fortune.

PC Mag was famous for its intense head-to-head Lab reviews, whether it was on printers, spreadsheets, graphics cards, you name it. I remember sweating out visits to PC Mag labs for compiler reviews when I worked at Borland years ago. PC Mag also had some of the most impressive writers whether it was Peter Norton, John Dvorak, Charles Petzold, Bill Machrone, Sheryl Canter, Jay Munro, Neil Rubenking, and many others.

But just as PC Mag rose with the microcomputer industry, so has it declined in recent years. The circulation is around half of what it was at its peak, and page count is down below 200 pages per issue. PC sales have flattened, but more significantly, the Web has become the best way to get technical information and reviews. PC Mag, while still a good read, has seen its circulation and page count fall dramatically. Now PC Mag has decided to drop its print edition and move exclusively to an online digital model. The last print edition will be the January 2009 issue.

For those who grew up on PC Mag, it’s a bittersweet outcome. But 27 years is a pretty good run for any magazine. I’m glad they will continue with their digital edition and Web site.

But it’s one more sign, alongside the demise of Comdex, Compaq, WordPerfect, Lotus, Borland, and many of the other companies that built the industry of how the technology industry continues to evolve and disrupt industries — even itself.