PCMag Australia

Few tech publications can claim an uninterrupted history of over 40 years. Here at PCMag, which started in 1982 on newsstands as PC, we're happy to be one. We transitioned to being fully digital in 2009, but the reviews, buying advice, news, and commentary continue to this day. And we owe it all to those who came before.

Conceived in August 1981, on the heels of IBM announcing its first personal computer, the original magazine was founded by the late David Bunnell with friends. Together, they crafted the first issue while working out of Bunnell's house in San Francisco. Bunnell was no publishing neophyte. He'd already written the documentation for the MITS Altair 8800 and handled the MITS newsletter called Computer Notes—one of the first publications about personal computing—before starting Personal Computing magazine in 1977. Later, he'd even go on to found some of PC Magazine's chief rivals.

In the first issue's Editor's Note, entitled "Flying Upside Down," Bunnell talks about the time it took to create the magazine. The idea may have come in August 1981, but the real physical work started on Oct. 1. Six weeks later, they showed off an eight-page four-color preview of the first issue at the giant Comdex Computer Show in Las Vegas.

We unabashedly aspire to that elite set of sensationally successful magazines that seem to magically combine concept and timing in a brew which results in a dizzy success cycle that no business plan could ever account for.

Rolling Stone, Playboy, and BYTE...that seem to magically combine concept and timing in a brew which results in a dizzy success cycle that no business plan could ever account for," Bunnell said.

He was right on the money. PC Magazine—we didn't add "Magazine" to the name until 1986—thrived through the computer magazine heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, handled the curves of the dot-com boom and bust, and is still going strong in the form of our website and our curated Digital Edition, the latter for those who prefer the magazine look for their tablets.

Gearing Up for the Big Launch

PC Magazine's success seems like a given when looking back in time, but didn't feel that way at the start. As Cheryl Woodard recounted in a great article from 2008 called How We Started PC MagazinePC Magazine in 1981 with $150,000, she was working with Bunnell at Osborne, a division of McGraw Hill, when the idea came to him. She became the magazine's first director of marketing and sales.

It turned out she had a tough job because the advertisers needed education on how to present themselves. It almost led to missing out on an IBM ad. Big Blue liked its Charlie Chaplin-style commercials, but the crew at PC (as they called themselves then) wanted IBM to run an ad that explained in more detail how user-friendly its new computer was. IBM then missed the deadline for the ad to be included, but PC staff held the issue to make sure the company was represented. IBM was right there on page 2 of the first issue. It lent the magazine a level of legitimacy it may otherwise have lacked.

Other companies knew PC Magazine was special, too, such as the burgeoning Microsoft, which also bought ads. Bill Gates even gave a full interview to the magazine (which you can read below on page 16). (We also caught up with Bill Gates 40 years later.)

The crew also enjoyed a big stroke of luck, in that McGraw-Hill's BYTE carried PC's subscription ad. Imagine a place where a company would support a future competitor like that. Back in those days, everyone in tech felt united by their enthusiasm for the nascent world of computers. Landing that ad gave PC a big audience right out of the gate.

Growing Pains

The first issue was printed in January 1982, but carried a Feb-Mar date on the cover, because that's how magazines maximized their newsstand time back in the day. The plan was to print six issues per year. The magazine soon had lots of subscriber money, but that didn't actually pay the bills. The big cash that it truly needed—from advertisers—trickled in slowly, despite the early ad growth.

More ads meant more pages, and that meant more editorial content had to be created. Thus the staff and the office space had to expand, and quickly. As Woodard put it, "success nearly killed us." By the fourth issue, the magazine went to 12 monthly issues a year just to keep up with the advertising demand.

By the time of PC's second Comdex show in November 1982, the lead investor in the magazine, Tony Gold of Lifeboat Associates, started to get cold feet due to the cash flow problems. He wanted to sell. Bunnell and Woodard started shopping it around, as did Gold. They couldn't come to an agreement. Without much warning, Gold—who technically had all the rights—sold PC entirely to Ziff-Davis Publishing, one of the biggest in the world. (Gold later sued Ziff-Davis for millions because he started a PC-building company and expected to get major ad discounts and access to mailing lists, which he didn't receive.)

Ziff-Davis was not Bunnell and Woodard's top choice to take over PC Magazine. They wanted to sell to Pat McGovern of CW Communications (later IDG). They even had a deal in place. So when Gold sold PC to Ziff-Davis, McGovern instead snapped up most of the staff. They launched a whole new book called PC World, which was announced at the same 1982 Comdex trade show. Ziff-Davis even tried to sue to try to prevent PC World from launching, without success. The next 15 years saw a battle between the two companies, plus CMP, all vying for computer publication dominance.

Read Our First-Ever Issue

PC eventually shifted location to New York with Ziff-Davis and had to re-staff quickly. Nevertheless, it became uber-successful. The rest is (our) history. PC Magazine became the backbone of Ziff Davis (now without the hyphen) for several decades as other tech mags and online ventures came and went. Ziff Davis launched or acquired titles such as Computer Shopper, Creative Computing, PC/Computer, Yahoo! Internet Life, FamilyPC, PCWeek, eWeek, MacWeek, MacUser, Computer Gaming World, and more. That was along with ZDNet, ZDTV, and trade shows (Ziff Davis even bought Comdex).

But all of it comes back to this first issue of PC. We're happy to be able to present it here, in its entirety, thanks to the free archive of almost every print edition of PC MagazinePC Magazine housed at Google Books.

Inside, you'll find:

The world's first major evaluation of the IBM PC
A two-hour exclusive interview with then 26-year-old Bill Gates about contributing to the development of the IBM PC.
An overview of the three operating systems available at the time (DOS, CP/M-86, and p-System)
A candid look at EasyWriter, IBM's word processor of choice
A rundown of how "PC-Lab" would be evaluating products, despite not having a lab facility or even any white lab coats
A feature called "The Age of Altair" that looked back at the roots of personal computing.
Plus, you'll see some vintage ads that will make you wistful—if they don't make you cringe

Enjoy this bit of the past, where we were always looking toward a bright future.

Read the Charter Issue of PC Magazine From 1982

Four decades ago, no one knew exactly where technology would take us. We just knew the IBM PC was here to change everything.

About Eric Griffith

More From Eric Griffith

Read the Charter Issue of PC Magazine From 1982

Four decades ago, no one knew exactly where technology would take us. We just knew the IBM PC was here to change everything.

More Inside PCMag.com

About Eric Griffith

More From Eric Griffith

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