Journalism and the computer industry

Developments in the computer industry and user commu-nity have been chronicled by a great variety of printed and on-line publications. As computer science began to emerge as a discipline in the late 1950s and 1960s, academically oriented groups such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Institute for Electrical and Electron-ics Engineers (IEEE) began to issue both general and spe-cial-interest journals. Meanwhile, the computer industry developed both computer science-oriented publications (such as the IBM Systems Journal) and independent industry periodicals such as Datamation.

The development of microcomputer systems in the mid- to late-1970s was accompanied by a proliferation of varied and often feisty publications. Byte magazine, which coined the term PC in 1976, became a respected trade pub-lication that introduced new technologies while showcasing what programmers could do with the early systems. The weekly newspaper InfoWorld provided more immediate and detailed coverage of industry developments, and was joined by similar publications such as Information Week and Com-puterworld. Meanwhile, technically savvy programmers and do-it-yourself engineers turned to such publications as the exotically named Dr. Dobbs’ Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia (eventually shortened to Dr. Dobbs’ Jour-nal). Many groups of people who owned particular systems (see user groups) also published their own newsletters with technical tips.

The success of the IBM PC family of computers estab-lished a broad-based consumer computing market. It was accompanied by the success of PC Magazine, which addresses a wide spectrum of both general consumers and “power users.” As the revenue for the PC industry grew in the 1990s, the trade publications grew fatter with advertising. The popularity of the Internet and particu-larly the World Wide Web in the latter part of the decade provided niches for a spate of new publications including

Internet World and Yahoo! Internet Life. At the same time, many traditional publications began to offer expanded content via Web sites. For example, Ziff Davis, publisher of PC Magazine and other computer magazines created ZDNet, which offered a large amount of content from the magazines plus expanded news and extensive shareware and utility libraries.

Like earlier technological developments, the PC and the Internet have also spawned cultural expressions. The culture growing around the Internet and a generation of young programmers, artists, and writers saw expression in another genre of publications, ranging from small, eclectic printed or Web “zines” to the slick Wired magazine.

From Print to Online

Many of the pressures on mainstream journalism also apply to computer industry journalism. As computer hardware became a commodity with lower profit margins, and with the shift to e-commerce and online activity, many print magazines have folded or at least shrunk. In 1998 the vener-able Byte became an online-only publication, a path finally followed by InfoWorld in 2007.

Online sites such as ZDNET and CNET now carry in-depth news and product reviews. Slashdot (“New for Nerds”) is particularly popular among programmers. As with mainstream journalism, blogs also play an important part in professional and industry journalism in the comput-ing field.