Computers: Fading Glossies

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Magazines feel the squeeze

Desktop Computing, a monthly magazine with about 50,000 readers, has published its final issue. So has Compu-Kids, Educational Computer, Computer-Fun and two dozen other computer magazines. "Anyone wanting to start a new magazine had better research another field," says Robert Lydon, publisher of Personal Computing. "This one is dead."

Only a year ago, computer publications were growing almost as fast as the industry. The demand for timely, unbiased information about computers written in plain English seemed insatiable. Advertisers rushed to the generally affluent computer owners, packing the publications with ads. The December issue of PCmagazine, which features articles about the IBM Personal Computer, had 498 pages of advertising and 276 pages of text. Nearly 600 journals, magazines and newsletters, with a combined circulation of about 12 million, now crowd the market.

But the go-for-glory days are ending. Even though Americans are buying more than 750,000 personal computers a month, circulation has leveled off and advertising is down dramatically, nearly 20% for Compute!, 22% for Creative Computing and 31% for Computers and Electronics.

As the fallout has started, so has the industry infighting. Byte Ad Sales Manager Peter Huestis sent out hundreds of letters proclaiming that Lydon's Personal Computing had failed to meet its promised circulation increases. Lydon rebutted that Byte had "gone berserk."

"Clearly there are too many magazines," says David Bunnell, publisher of PC World and Mac World, magazines specializing in the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh computers. "I expect 50 more to fold before the year is over." Bunnell is a veteran of this treacherous terrain. One morning in 1982 he walked into his San Francisco offices only to discover that his company had been bought out over the weekend by publishing giant Ziff-Davis. ∎