 February 1998, the final print edition ofDatamation magazine | |
| Categories | Computer magazine |
|---|---|
| Format | Online magazine |
| Founded | 1957 |
| Final issue | February 1998; 28 years ago (1998-02) (print) |
| Company | TechnologyAdvice |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Website | datamation |
| ISSN | 0011-6963 |
Datamation is acomputer magazine that was published in print form in theUnited States between 1957[1] and 1998,[2][3] and has since continued publication on the web.Datamation was previously owned byQuinStreet and acquired by TechnologyAdvice in 2020.[4] Datamation is published as an online magazine at Datamation.com.
Its predecessor started as a trade/engineering magazine calledResearch & Engineering (1955–1957).[5][1] In 1957 it was rebranded toThe Magazine of Datamation (from the issue no. 7),[6][7] and in 1959 the name was finally changed toDatamation (from the issue no. 3).[8][note 1][9]
WhenDatamation as such was first launched in 1957,[1] it was not clear there would be a significant market for a computer magazine given how fewcomputers there were. The idea for the magazine came fromDonald Prell who wasVice President of Application Engineering atBenson-Lehner Corporation, a Los Angeles computer input-output company. In 1957, the only place his company could advertise their products was in eitherScientific American orBusiness Week. Prell had discussed the idea withJohn Diebold who started "AutomationData Processing Newsletter", and that was the inspiration for the nameDATAMATION. 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 joinedIBM'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 byDun 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 withBolt 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 ofDatamation 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 byQuinstreet, Inc.
Traditionally, an April issue ofDatamation contained a number of spoof articles and humorous stories related to computers.
However, humor was not limited to April. For example, in a spoofDatamation article[16] (December 1973), R. Lawrence Clark suggested that theGOTO statementcould be replaced by theCOMEFROM statement and provided some entertaining examples. This was actually implemented in theINTERCAL programming language, a language designed to make programs as obscure as possible.
Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal was aletter to the editor ofDatamation, volume 29 number 7, July 1983, written by Ed Post,Tektronix,Wilsonville, Oregon, USA.[17]
Some of theBOFH stories were reprinted inDatamation.
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 byAnnals of Improbable Research editorMarc Abrahams and MISinformation editor Chris Miksanek. Semich also commissioned BOFH authorSimon 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'salter-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).
Thus was Datamation born in October 1967. With a circulation of 145,000, Datamation now ranks as the oldest publication