Datamation

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Datamation
ISSN
0011-6963

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

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,

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,

Dun and Bradstreet
.

In 1970, The New York Times referred to "12-year-old Datamation, the acknowledged leader in the field."[16]

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,

Quinstreet
, Inc.

Computer humor

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

GOTO
statement could be replaced by 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.[19]

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

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

  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

  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. 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. Internet Archive. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. 1957-10-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. OCLC 945019
    .
  9. ^ Datamation March-April 1959: Vol 5 Iss 2. Internet Archive. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. 1959-03-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ "Technology News: Latest IT and Tech Industry News".
  11. ^ "Trademark Filing for Datamation".
  12. ^ "Biographies". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
  13. ^ "Sandy Lanzarotta, 78; PR Exec at IBM, Xerox". Palisadian-Post. September 12, 2007.
  14. ^ "Trademark Filing for Datamation".
  15. ^ "Biographies". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
  16. ^ Philip H. Dougherty (March 29, 1970). "Advertising". The New York Times.
  17. ^ "Dun & Bradstreet to Sell Technical Publishing Concerns". Associated Press.
  18. ^ "Comefrom Statement". Archived from the original on 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2004-05-16.
  19. ^ "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal".

External links

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