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Datamation

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Datamation
February 1998, the final print edition of Datamation magazine
Categoriescomputer magazine
FormatOnline magazine
Founded1957
Final issueFebruary 1998; 26 years ago (1998-02) (print)
CompanyTechnologyAdvice
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.datamation.com
ISSN0011-6963

Datamation is a computer magazine that was published in print form in the United States between 1957[1] and 1998,[2][3] and has since continued publication on the web. Datamation was previously owned by QuinStreet and acquired by TechnologyAdvice in 2020.[4] Datamation is published as an online magazine at Datamation.com.

History and profile

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Its predecessor started as a trade/engineering magazine called Research & Engineering (1955–1957).[5][1] In 1957 it was rebranded to The Magazine of Datamation (from the issue no. 7),[6][7] and in 1959 the name was finally changed to Datamation (from the issue no. 3).[8][note 1][9]

When Datamation as such was first launched in 1957,[1] it was not clear there would be a significant market for a computer magazine given how few computers there were. The idea for the magazine came from Donald Prell who was Vice President of Application Engineering at Benson-Lehner Corporation, a Los Angeles computer input-output company. In 1957, the only place his company could advertise their products was in either Scientific American or Business Week. Prell had discussed the idea with John Diebold who started "Automation Data Processing Newsletter", and that was the inspiration for the name DATAMATION. F.D. Thompson Publishing, Inc., agreed to publish the magazine with its owner, Frank D. Thompson, as the New York City-based publisher, but with its editorial operations in Los Angeles.[10][11][12]

After leaving Benson-Lehner, Prell served as the magazine's technical consultant and later, while based in London, its European editor. Sandy Lanzarotta served as the magazine's first editor,[13] then Harold Bergstein moved from managing editor to editor when Lanzarotta joined IBM's marketing department. Robert B. Forest succeeded Bergstein as editor in 1963 and remained in that role for over a decade.[11][12] The magazine was later acquired by Technical Publications, and subsequently that entity was acquired by Dun and Bradstreet.

In 1970, The New York Times referred to "12-year-old Datamation, the acknowledged leader in the field."[14]

In 1995, after rival CMP Media Inc.'s 1994 launch of its TechWeb network of publications, Datamation worked in partnership with Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) and launched one of the first online publications, Datamation.com. In 1996, Datamation editors Bill Semich, Michael Lasell and April Blumenstiel, received the first-ever Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Award for an online publication. The Neal Award is the highest award for business journalism in the U.S.

In 1998, when its publisher, Reed Business Information (who had earlier acquired Technical Publications in 1986[15]), terminated print publication of Datamation 41 years after its first issue went to press,[3] the online version, Datamation.com, became one of the first online-only magazines. In 2001, Internet.com (WebMediaBrands) acquired the still-profitable Datamation.com online publication. In 2009, Internet.com (and Datamation.com) were acquired by Quinstreet, Inc.

Computer humor

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Traditionally, an April issue of Datamation contained a number of spoof articles and humorous stories related to computers.

However, humor was not limited to April. For example, in a spoof Datamation article[16] (December 1973), R. Lawrence Clark suggested that the GOTO statement could be replaced by the COMEFROM statement and provided some entertaining examples. This was actually implemented in the INTERCAL programming language, a language designed to make programs as obscure as possible.

Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal was a letter to the editor of Datamation, volume 29 number 7, July 1983, written by Ed Post, Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon, USA.[17]

Some of the BOFH stories were reprinted in Datamation.

The humor section was resurrected in 1996 by editor in chief Bill Semich with a two-page spread titled "Over the Edge" with material contributed by Annals of Improbable Research editor Marc Abrahams and MISinformation editor Chris Miksanek. Semich also commissioned BOFH author Simon Travaglia to write humor columns for the magazine. Later that year, Miksanek became the sole humor contributor (though in 1998 "Over the Edge" was augmented with an online weblinks companion by Miksanek's alter-ego "The Duke of URL"). The column was dropped from the magazine in 2001 when it was acquired by Internet.com.

A collection of "Over the Edge" columns was published in 2008 under the title "Esc: 400 Years of Computer Humor" (ISBN 1434892484).

Notes

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  1. ^ The Datamation on the cover was exposed starting from 1957; Until the 1959 there were two names inside the magazine (The Magazine … and Research … on bottom of the pages).

References

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  1. ^ a b c N. R. Kleinfield (August 29, 1981). "Computing's Lusty Offspring". The New York Times. Thus was Datamation born in October 1967. With a circulation of 145,000, Datamation now ranks as the oldest publication
  2. ^ Roy A. Allan A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology, 2001, ISBN 0-9689108-0-7. page 1/14 "A popular data processing magazine called Datamation started in October 1957 as Research and Engineering (The Magazine of Datamation)."
  3. ^ a b Venerable IS Journal Shuts Down, Sharon Machlis // ComputerWorld, page 15, 19 January 1998
  4. ^ Staff, eWeek. "eWEEK Moves to New Publisher, TechnologyAdvice.com". eweek.com. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  5. ^ Research & engineering. Stanford Library.
  6. ^ The Magazine of datamation. Stanford Library. 1958.
  7. ^ Datamation 1957-10: Vol 3 Iss 7. Reed Business Information. 1957-10-01.
  8. ^ Datamation. Stanford Library. OCLC 945019.
  9. ^ Datamation March-April 1959: Vol 5 Iss 2. Reed Business Information. 1959-03-01.
  10. ^ "Technology News: Latest IT and Tech Industry News".
  11. ^ a b "Trademark Filing for Datamation".
  12. ^ a b "Biographies". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
  13. ^ "Sandy Lanzarotta, 78; PR Exec at IBM, Xerox". Palisadian-Post. September 12, 2007.
  14. ^ Philip H. Dougherty (March 29, 1970). "Advertising". The New York Times.
  15. ^ "Dun & Bradstreet to Sell Technical Publishing Concerns". Associated Press.
  16. ^ "Comefrom Statement". Archived from the original on 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2004-05-16.
  17. ^ "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal".
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