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Byte
Vol 1. no. 4, December 1975
CategoriesComputer magazines
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherUBM Technology Group
First issueSeptember 1975;49 years ago(1975-09)
Final issueJuly 1998;26 years ago(1998-07)
Company
CountryUnited States
Based inPeterborough, New Hampshire
LanguageEnglish
ISSN0360-5280

Byte(stylized asBYTE) was amicrocomputermagazine,influential in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage.[1]

Bytestarted in 1975, shortly after thefirst personal computersappeared as kits advertised in the back of electronics magazines.Bytewas published monthly, with an initial yearly subscription price of $10. Whereas many magazines were dedicated to specific systems or the home or business user's perspective,Bytecovered developments in the entire field of "small computers and software", and sometimes other computing fields such assupercomputersandhigh-reliability computing.Coverage was in-depth with much technical detail, rather than user-oriented.

The company was purchased byMcGraw-Hillin 1979, a watershed event that led to the rapid purchase of many of the early computer magazines by larger publishers. By this time the magazine had taken on a more seriousjournal-likeatmosphere and began to refer to itself as "the small systems journal". It became an influential publication;Bytewas selected as the medium used byXerox PARCto publicizeSmalltalkin 1981.

Like many generalist magazines,Bytesuffered in the 1990s due to declining advertising sales. McGraw-Hill's publishing arm was sold toCMP Mediain May 1998, and the new owners immediately laid off almost everyone in the magazine arm, ending publication with the already-complete July edition. The associated website continued to draw 600,000 page views a month, prompting the owners to re-open the magazine in a pure online format in 1999. It continued as an online publication until 2009, when it shut down, only to be revived in 2011 and then shut down for good in 2013.

Foundation

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Wayne Greenwas the editor and publisher ofamateur radiomagazine73.In late 1974 and throughout 1975,73published a number of articles on the use of computers, which resulted in a significant response from the readers. TheAltair 8800was announced in January 1975, sparking off intense interest among those working technical fields, including the amateur radio market. Green knew of the Altair becauseMITShad previously been an advertiser in73.This led Green to begin plans for a magazine dedicated to the newly emergingmicrocomputermarket.[2]

In 1974, Carl Helmers published a series of six articles that detailed the design and construction of his "Experimenter's Computer System", a personal computer based on theIntel 8008microprocessor. In January 1975 this became the monthlyECSmagazine with 400 subscribers. Green contacted Helmers and proposed starting a new magazine to be known as Byte. The deal was announced in both magazines in May.

Green's editorial column in the August 1975 issue of73started with this item:

The response to computer-type articles in73has been so enthusiastic that we here in Peterborough got carried away. On May 25th we made a deal with the publisher of a small (400 circulation) computer hobby magazine to take over as editor of a new publication which would start in August...Byte.[3]

The last issue ofECSwas published on 12 May 1975. In June, subscribers were mailed a notice announcingBytemagazine. Helmers wrote to another hobbyist newsletter,Micro-8 Computer User Group Newsletter,and described his new job as editor ofBytemagazine:

I got a note in the mail about two weeks ago from Wayne Green, publisher of '73 Magazine' essentially saying hello and why don't you come up and talk a bit. The net result of a follow up is the decision to create BYTE magazine using the facilities of Green Publishing Inc. I will end up with the editorial focus for the magazine; with the business end being managed by Green Publishing.[4]

To advertise the new magazine, Green contacted a number of the companies that had been advertising in73and asked for their contact lists. He then sent letters out to these people telling them about the new magazine. This resulted in about 20% of the contacts subscribing, a massive conversion rate.[5]

Early editions, formation of Kilobaud

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Just prior to planningByte,Green had a run-in with theInternal Revenue Service.When he told his lawyer that he planned on starting a new magazine, he was advised to put it in someone else's name. He had recently gotten back together with his ex-wife,Virginia Londner Green,who had been listed as the business manager of 73 Inc. since December 1974.[6]She incorporatedGreen Publishingin March 1975 to take over publication.[7]

The first issue of the new magazine was the September 1975 edition. Articles in the first issue includedWhich Microprocessor For You?byHal Chamberlin,Write Your Own AssemblerbyDan FylstraandSerial InterfacebyDon Lancaster.Among the more important articles was the introduction of theKansas City standardfor storing data oncassette tape,which was used by most machines of the era. It included advertisements fromGodbout,MITS,Processor Technology,SCELBI,andSphere,among others.[8]

Until the December 1988 issue,[9]a continuing feature wasCiarcia's Circuit Cellar,a column in which electronic engineerSteve Ciarciadescribed small projects to modify or attach to a computer. This was later spun off to become the magazineCircuit Cellar,focusing onembeddedcomputer applications.[citation needed]Significant articles in this period included the insertion offloppy diskdrives intoS-100computers, publication of source code for various computer languages (TinyC,BASIC,assemblers), and coverage of the first microcomputeroperating system,CP/M.

The first four issues were produced in the offices of73and Wayne Green was listed as the publisher. One day in November 1975 Green came back to the office and found that theBytemagazine staff had moved out and taken the January issue with them.[10]For the February 1976 issue, the company changed its name to Byte Publications.[11]Carl Helmers was a co-owner of Byte Publications.[12]The February issue has a short story about the move; "After a start which reads like a romantic light opera with an episode or two reminiscent of theKeystone Cops,Bytemagazine finally has moved into separate offices of its own. "[13]

Green was not happy about losingByteand decided to start a new magazine calledKilobyte.He announced these intentions early, and advertised the upcoming magazine in73,with the goal of shipping the first issue in December 1976 (the January 1977 edition).[14]Bytequickly took out a trademark on "KILOBYTE" as the name for a cartoon series inBytemagazine, and threatened to sue for trademark violations. This forced Green to change the name of the new magazine toKilobaud.There was competition and animosity between Byte Publications and 73 Inc. but both remained in the small town ofPeterborough, New Hampshire.

Growth and change

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Byteleased an office for one of their West Coast Branch operations in this building inCosta Mesa, California(pictured in 2022).

In April 1979, owner/publisher Virginia Williamson (née Londner Green) soldBytetoMcGraw-Hill.At the time,Byte's paid circulation was 156,000 readers, making it second only toBusiness Weekin the McGraw-Hill's technology magazine portfolio.[15]She remained publisher until 1983 and became a vice president of McGraw-Hill Publications Company. From August 1979, the magazine switched to computerized typesetting, using aCompugraphicsystem.[16]Shortly after theIBM PCwas introduced, in 1981, the magazine changed editorial policies. It gradually de-emphasized the do-it-yourself electronics and software articles, and began running product reviews. It continued its wide-ranging coverage of hardware and software, but now it reported "what it does" and "how it works", not "how to do it". The editorial focus remained onhomeandpersonal computers.

By the early 1980s,Bytehad become an "elite" magazine, seen as a peer ofRolling StoneandPlayboy,and others such asDavid BunnellofPC Magazineaspired to emulate its reputation and success.[17]It was the only computer publication on the 1981 Folio 400 list of largest magazines.Byte's 1982 average number of pages was 543, and the number of paid advertising pages grew by more than 1,000 while most magazines' amount of advertising did not change. Its circulation of 420,000 was the third highest of all computer magazines.[18]Byteearned $9 million from revenue of $36.6 million in 1983, twice the average profit margin for the magazine industry. It remained successful while many other magazines failed in 1984 during economic weakness in the computer industry. The October 1984 issue had about 300 pages of ads sold at an average of $6,000 per page.[19]

Starting with the December 1975 issue through September 1990,Bytecovers often featured the artwork ofRobert Tinney.These covers madeBytevisually distinctive.[20]However, issues featuring cover stories introducing significant hardware such as theApple Lisa,Apple Macintosh,IBM PCandCommodore Amigafeatured product photographs on the covers.

From approximately 1980 to 1985, cartoonist Tom Sloan drew full page multipanel cartoons. They covered various computer/tech related themes. Several of the original cartoons are now in theComputer History Museumin Mountain View, California.

Around 1985,Bytestarted an online service calledBIX(ByteInformation eXchange) which was a text-onlyBBS-stylesite running on theCoSyconferencing software,[21]also used by McGraw-Hill internally.[22]Access was via local dial-in or, for additional hourly charges, theTymnetX.25network. Monthly rates were $13/month for the account and $1/hour for X.25 access. UnlikeCompuServe,access at higher speeds was not surcharged. Later,gatewayspermittedemailcommunication outside the system.

By 1990, the magazine was about half an inch (1.25 cm) in thickness and had a subscription price of $56/year. Around 1993,Bytebegan to develop awebpresence. It acquired the domain name byte and began to hostdiscussion boardsand post selected editorial content.

Editions were published inJapan,Brazil,Germany,and an Arabic edition was published in Jordan.

End of print publication, online shift, and demise

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The readership ofByteand advertising revenue were declining when McGraw-Hill sold the magazine toCMP Media,a successful publisher of specialized computer magazines, in May 1998.[23]The magazine's editors and writers expected its new owner to revitalizeByte,but CMP ceased publication with the July 1998 issue, laid off all the staff and shut downByte's rather large product-testing lab.[24][25]

Publication ofByteinGermanyandJapancontinued uninterrupted. The Turkish edition resumed publication after a few years of interruption. The Arabic edition also ended abruptly.[26]

Many ofByte's columnists migrated their writing to personal web sites. One such site wasscience fictionauthorJerry Pournelle'sweblogThe View From Chaos Manor[27]derived from a long-standing column inByte,describing computers from apower user's point of view. After the closure ofBytemagazine, Pournelle's column continued to be published in the Turkish editions ofPC World,which was soon renamed asPC Lifein Turkey.Nikkei Byte,with the name licensed from McGraw Hill, was the leading computer magazine in Japan, published byNikkei Business Publications.It continued Pournelle's column in translation as a major feature for years afterByteclosed in the U.S.

In 1999, CMP revivedByteas a web-only publication, from 2002accessible by subscription.It closed in 2009.[26]

UBM TechWebbrought theBytename back when it officially relaunchedByteas Byte on July 11, 2011. According to the site, the mission of the newBytewas:

...to examine technology in the context of the consumerization of IT. The subject relates closely to important IT issues like security and manageability. It's an issue that reaches both IT and users, and it's an issue where both groups need to listen carefully to the requirements of the other: IT may wish to hold off on allowing devices and software onto the network when they haven't been properly tested and can't be properly supported. But the use of these devices in the enterprise has the air of inevitability for a good reason. They make users more productive and users are demanding them.[28]

The Byte launch editor-in-chief was tech journalistGina Smith.On September 26, 2011, Smith was replaced by Larry Seltzer. In January 2012 Americanscience fictionandhorrorauthorF. Paul Wilsonbegan writing for byte, mostly in the persona of his best-known characterRepairman Jack.[28]

Byte closed in 2013.[29]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^Valery, Nicholas (May 19, 1977)."Spare a byte for the family".New Scientist.Vol. 74, no. 1052. London: Reed Business Information. pp. 405–406.ISSN0262-4079."Bytemagazine, the leading publication serving the homebrew market... "
  2. ^Interview 2013,5:30.
  3. ^Green, Wayne (August 1975)."Never Say Die".73 Amateur Radio(179): 2.
  4. ^Singer, Hal; John Craig (June 27, 1975)."News".Micro-8 Computer User Group Newsletter.1(8). Lompoc, CA: Cabrillo Computer Center: 1.File:Micro-8 June 27 1975.png
  5. ^Interview 2013,6:30.
  6. ^Green, Wayne (December 1974)."73 Staff".73 Amateur Radio(179): 4.Virginia Londner Green is listed as Business Manager.
  7. ^"Business Name History".BYTE Publications and Green Publishing.New Hampshire Corporate Division. December 27, 1996. Archived fromthe originalon September 28, 2013.RetrievedMarch 10,2013.Green Publishing, Inc. was incorporated on March 7, 1975.
  8. ^"Cover"(PDF).Byte.September 1975.
  9. ^Ciarcia, Steve(1990).Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar.McGraw-Hill.p. ix.ISBN0-07-010969-9.RetrievedJuly 2,2022.
  10. ^Carlson, Walter (January 1985). "Green: a shade ahead of the market – Wayne Green".Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management.Green relates that when he arrived at the office one day in November 1975, when the fifth issue was in the works, he found that everything had been moved out--the shoeboxes, the back issues, the articles and the bank account--by his general manager, who also happened to be his first wife, from whom he was divorced in 1965.
  11. ^Copyright catalogs at the Library of Congress forByte magazine.
  12. ^"Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation".Byte.2(12). Peterborough, NH: Byte Publications: 184. December 1977.Virginia Peschke and Carl Helmers are the owners of Byte Publications.
  13. ^"Our New Offices".Byte.February 1976. p. 14.
  14. ^"All About kilobyte".73 Amateur Radio(194): 118–119. December 1976.Two page ad describing the new KILOBYTE magazine.
  15. ^Helmers, Carl (July 1979). "The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same...".BYTE.4(7): 14.
  16. ^Helmers, Carl (August 1979)."Notes on the Appearance of BYTE..."BYTE.4(8): 158–159.
  17. ^Bunnell, David (February–March 1982)."Flying Upside Down".PC Magazine.p. 10.RetrievedOctober 20,2013.
  18. ^"Boom in Computer Magazines".The New York Times.November 9, 1983.RetrievedFebruary 25,2011.
  19. ^Berg, Eric N. (September 8, 1984)."The Computer Magazine Glut".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedJuly 3,2017.
  20. ^Edwards, Benj (September 26, 2006)."VC&G Interview: Robert Tinney, BYTE Cover Artist and Microcomputer Illustration Pioneer".Vintage Computing and Gaming.Archivedfrom the original on July 2, 2022.RetrievedJuly 2,2022.
  21. ^Cocivera, Mary (June 20, 1985). "'BYTE' magazine goes for CoSy ".Guelph University News Bulletin.University of Guelph Information Services. p. 1.ISSN0229-2378.
  22. ^Meeks, Brock (December 1985). "An Overview of Conferencing Systems".Byte.Vol. 10, no. 13. pp. 169–184.The CoSy conferencing system at Guelph formally went on line in April of 1983. 'We started charging people real money for the service in the fall of 1984,' said Mayer.
  23. ^"CMP Media Inc. History".Funding Universe.RetrievedDecember 6,2015.
  24. ^"McGraw-Hill to Sell Information Group to CMP Media".The New York Times.Reuters. May 6, 1998. p. D.3.The McGraw-Hill Companies agreed yesterday to sell its Information Technology and Communications Group, which includesByteand other computer magazines, to CMP Media Inc. for $28.6 million.
  25. ^Napoli, Lisa (June 1, 1998). "New Owners of Byte Suspend Publication".The New York Times.p. D.4.Byte's circulation has fallen to a recent average of 442,553 from 522,795 in 1996. Advertising has also fallen. In January, for example, Byte published only 61.5 ad pages, less than half the number of pages the magazine had in 1996.
  26. ^abTom's UnofficialByteFAQ:The Death ofByteMagazine,by formerBytejournalistTom R. Halfhill,on his personal website
  27. ^"The View From Chaos Manor".Jerry Pournelle.June 25, 2011.RetrievedJune 8,2014.
  28. ^ab"Byte: Consumer Technology in Business".Informationweek.RetrievedJune 8,2014.
  29. ^McCracken, Harry (July 11, 2013)."PCWorld Exits Print, and the Era of Computer Magazines Ends".Technologizer.Time.Archivedfrom the original on July 2, 2022.RetrievedJuly 2,2022.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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