"Your old world is rapidly fading,
Please get out of the new one, if you can't lend a hand,
For the times, they are a-changin'."
--Bob Dylan
My favorite Dylan tune is as timeless as its subject--change. I rediscovered the tune after I became editor and the more I played it, the more it resonated with my sentiments toward technology's role in our lives. As technology has moved from the fringe to the mainstream, the song has become my mantra, helping me ingest the mountain of materials that moves across my desk each day.
Prior to the Internet, technology was something most of us took for granted. It existed in the background as a tool for progress. We all knew progress depended on technological advances, but, unless we worked in technology fields, it wasn't our focus. We seldom read tech stories in the papers. Talking tech at parties was tantamount to professing religious faith. Now, just about every media outlet has a technology beat. Everyone is talking about it. Technology plays a central part in the lives of a growing majority.
ComputerUser has grown with this fundamental shift in our culture. It started as a hacker's rag in 1982, distributed out of the trunk of a University of Minnesota student's car. It has retained the loyal geek following over the years while growing into the business sector. As it became more accessible to business people and neophytes, it grew in reach nationwide. Last month, it published in 30 markets from Seattle to Miami and Boston to Phoenix, with a total circulation of 1.3 million.
This month, with the acquisition of Computer Currents and the subsequent merger of the two publications, ComputerUser cracked the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Chicago markets. With this issue, we now distribute 1.7 million copies across 32 markets. We expect more growth in the near term.
Merging ComputerUser and Computer Currents is a natural move. These two longtime competitors have similar publishing models and audiences. But, over 17 years, the content of the two publications has diverged. Over the years, ComputerUser has focused more on analyzing technology trends and providing strategic solutions to business technology problems. Under the leadership of my esteemed colleague Robert Luhn (welcome, Robert), Computer Currents has focused more on advising readers on how to implement prevalent solutions. Together, these two pieces of the puzzle can provide a complete picture of business technology integration.
Our intention with the merged publication is to complete the puzzle, and to upgrade the package in which the complete picture is delivered. ComputerUser's strength has always been its opinion and feature sections. Computer Currents has always relied on its strong advice departments. In the new ComputerUser, we will retain the best of both worlds in a convenient, modular package.
The package we provide includes several sections. On Point gives readers the full complement of opinion writers from the two publications, including myself, Robert Luhn, Lincoln Spector, Nelson King, Michael Finley, and Joe Rudich. On Time provides quick news and reviews. On Topic is a rich feature well following a hot topic. For example, this month's theme is Mobile Gear. Off Topic is another feature well that delves into topics on a serial basis. And On Task provides the kind of advice from the writers Computer Currents' readers identify with.
ComputerUser is not only growing in the number of markets it serves, but it is also growing in existing markets. As a market matures, the size of its edition grows and it is able to run more content. Currently, our most mature market is Seattle, which publishes all the content we create in our central Minneapolis office. Less mature markets are not able to run all our content, but readers can still get this content on the Web.
Indeed, the Web is the great equalizer here. If your print edition is only 24 pages thick, you can find the rest of the ComputerUser content at our new Web home. This is a redesigned version of the award-winning Computer Currents Web site with ComputerUser content. Former Computer Currents Editor in Chief Robert Luhn and his staff will edit the Web site, adding new content and services each month to the full print product contents. The combination makes ComputerUser.com a must-bookmark site even for readers in markets like Silicon Valley, which will publish all of our content each month. Site statistics bear this out. Of its 1 million unique visitors each month, more than half are not regular readers of Computer Currents. These visitors come to the site from portals and other Web venues for its daily news updates, E-Currents section, tech dictionary, and a growing list of content and community services.
As ComputerUser continues to ride the wave of technology into the mainstream, we look to continue to upgrade our content to meet the needs of the growing tech majority. This month, we focus on mobile computing with a cover story on the wireless Web, an interview with Frank Spindler, the head of Intel's mobile computing division, and several features designed to bring you up to speed on the latest technology for the mobile work force.
Who would have thought 10 years ago that topics like these would be in the mainstream? Yet these and other topics considered hard-core tech in the early '90s are tossed out in every day speech from boardrooms to bedrooms in the '00s. In the midst of this, I can't help but quote Dylan again on ComputerUser's improbable rise to success: "For the loser now will be later to win; for the times, they are a changin'."
James Mathewson is the editorial director of ComputerUser.com Inc. (james@computeruser.com).
