Jan 21 2007
PC Week Alumni Blog Ring
Those of us fortunate enough to spend the mid-80s at PC Week — the Weekly Newspaper of IBM Standard Computing (I think I am recalling the tagline more or less correctly) — are all part of an amazing shared experience in what was, at the time, the hottest publication in tech journalism. Most went on, in one way or another, to do some cool things in the tech business. Here’s an ongoing list of some of PC Week contemporaries
who are blogging.
- Paul Gillin – former senior editor of software, went on to be the Editor-in-Chief of ComputerWorld, then to TechTarget, now working on a book on the impact of social media on corporations. He’s blogging social media and the corporate enterprise here.
- Sam Whitmore — former editor in chief, now the leading expert on tech media trends, at Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey — SWMS
- Rob O’Regan — former copy chief, then news editor — went on to join me at McKinsey’s Business Knowledge Services, then editor in chief of CMO Magazine at IDG’s CXO Media. Now blogging at Magnosticism.
- Dan Lyons — business reporter, went on to write a hysterical novel, Dog Days, now at Forbes as the senior technology editor. Blogging at Floating Point and the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs as The Fake Steve Jobs
- Â Jim Forbes — senior editor in PC Week’s west coast bureau, onwards to DemoMobile, now retired in San Diego and blogging at Forbes On Tech
- Chris Shipley — senior editor, went on to lead IDG’s Demo conference, founder of GuideWire, blogging at GuideWire Connection.
- Gina Smith — reporter at PC Week, went on a career in television, CEO of an Oracle subsidiary, blogging at I’m Gina Smith
- Lisa Picarille — reporter, now blogging at RevenueToday.com
- Jeffrey S. Young — west coast editor, now editor in chief of a Sacramento-area business mag, was blogging at ZDNet, but seems to be dormant.
- Jimmy Guterman, reporter, went on to start Vineyard.com, an online media consultancy, founding editor Forrester Magazine, blogging now at Jewels and Binoculars.
- John Dodge, former executive news editor, now EIC at Design News. [thanks Rob O'Regan]
- Dan Farber, former EIC, now blogging at ZDNet’s Between the Lines
- David Berlind, former director of the PC Week Labs, now at ZDNet blogging at Testbed
Anyone I missed? Please let me know in the comments.
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John Dodge, former executive news editor, now EIC at Design News, http://www.designnews.com/blog/130000213.html
more tk
Bruce Stephen was at IDC for many years, late at Chadwick Martin & Bailey. I’m not sure where he is now.
Beth Stackpole (formerly Beth Freedman) has a successful freelance writer in Newbury, MA.
Rob Garretson went on to be chief editor of the IDG News Service and later an editor at the Washington Post. He’s back to freelancing, last I heard.
David Berlind and Dan Farber, of course… at ZDNet.
I wonder if that Dan guy is blogging for the Israelis…
I was googling some old PCWeek friends and came across your site. We never met but I knew of you when I was at PCW 1991-1995. You were always held up as the example of someone who could leave PCW and get into mainstream business media.
I’m now deputy bureau chief in Detroit for the Wall Street Journal, covering GM and whatever crisises crop up in the domestic auto industry.
Thanks for this blog, nice to see where everybody ended up.
Neal
Neal — sorry we missed each other. Congrats on landing a WSJ gig — I think it was the only place I wished I had worked as a reporter other than Forbes.
Are you blogging? If so send a link and I’ll add you to the list.
Hey – I stumbled across this blog for PC Week alums and wanted to give a shout-out from the 1980s copy desk, where in some part of my imagination I will always live on, hunched in front of an Atex terminal while I write headlines that invariably include the word “debut.” In recent years, I have mutated into a novelist and gonzo science writer. In March, Bloomsbury will release my latest book, which tells the story Michael Dillon, the first person to undergo a female-to-male sex change. I also write for a lot of magazines.
Here’s some news of other alums:
Diane Bernard, formerly on the “printer beat,” is now a filmmaker in Brooklyn; last I heard, she was working on VH-1s “I Love the 90s.”
Leslie Case, the “rock ‘n’ roll copy editor,” is the front-woman for a band called Asian Babe Alert.
What a hoot!
I started at PCW way back when it was in some dingy warehouse of an office in Newton. I think I was about the 10th employee, and for a while Matt Kramer and I comprised the features staff, working for Lois Paul.
Worked there through the Framingham days (anybody remember the Christmas party at the Guggenheim (more specifically, the bus ride back?)), then the whole circus moved into the Pru. Loved the free employee parking there.
I left PCW for an oh-so-brief stint at McGlinchey & Paul, then went freelance for a few years, and then ended up at Digital Review. Suffered through that for a few years, as Cahner’s Publishing beat on it like a circus monkey, and eventually left the business altogether.
For the past 12 years, I’ve been a chiropractic physician and acupuncturist. My practice is the Center for Alternative Medicine, PC, in Litchfield, CT. How’s that for a morph?
Anybody know what happened to Matt Kramer or Susan Lilly? How about Peggy Straub or Dan Ruby?
Thanks for the blog, what a great idea.
Of course, when I referred to the Framingham days in the above post, I meant Needham. Being out of touch so long made my Boston metro geography a little screwy.
Anyway, if anyone wants to get in touch with me directly, go to my website http://www.docaltmed.com.
Yeah, it was done on the fly with Nvu, no less, and sort of looks like it was put together by a bunch of drunken monkeys. But the writing *still* sparkles, eh?
FYI, members of the PCW Alumni Committee are planning a reunion in Boston on Thurs June 14 – save the date and stay tuned for details.
OK, I’ll only show up if Matt Kramer does.
I can not believe this Internet–a blog for PCWeek alumi. Is there anything you can’t find on the Internet?
On a particularly slow Thursday afternoon on the city desk at the Denver Post, I tried googling Rich Duffy, whom I never heard from again after we very drunkenly signed a bottle of champagne the night before he moved with Ruth to Hawaii. That was in 1986. I was supposed to bring it out to Hawaii and never did. Does know where Rich is or what happened to him?
Hello to Beth, Sam, John Dodge and all the others.
What a funny time that was in my life, maybe in others’ as well.
Would love to hear from anyone. mmcphee@denverpost.com
I was at PC Week from 1988-1994 after interning the summer of 1987. Quite an experience and cast of characters. I’ve been at IDC since then as a market researcher. I remember well trying (and failing) to chase down the IBM MicroChannel cloners for Mr. Churbuck. And writing stories about floppy-drive shortages and laptop carseats using the king of word processors, XyWrite. Hello to everyone from back then, I always look up at the 11th floor of the Prudential when I’m in Boston. I’m at dcchandler@yahoo.com.
Peter Coffee is blogging at http://blog.sforce.com/.
Who Killed Spencer F Katt?
In what murky Boston alley was the felines body dumped?
If you have clues, fur, or a euthanasia record, please post here…
Is that Howl you hear at night just a local feline on the prowl? ..
Or is it the city crying out for Justice
On the heels of Drake Lundell’s and Bob Zeigel’s “newsletter” version of PC Week (published exclusively to secure trademark on the name), the first glossy tabloid version was datelined August 26, 1983 and included these scintillating reads:
Business users targeted at Faire opening today. (IBM PC Faire) Lois Paul. pp1(2). (496 words)
System called PC’s other half; communication options. Richard Duffy. pp1(2). (930 words)
Training seen critical for executive PC users. Lois Paul. pp3(1). (547 words)
Computer use increases job satisfaction: study. Marjorie Lyon. pp5(1). (335 words)
‘Real’ PC cast seen 3 time intial tag. Lois Paul. pp5(1). (544 words)
Frito-Lay to try being paperless company. Nancy French. pp6(1). (1772 words)
Mainframe-PC software partners emerge. Lois Paul. pp7(1). (1205 words)
Norton sees 3 IBM units. (Pre-Publication) Richard Duffy. pp8(1). (484 words)
Peanut’s expected debut worries major retailers; fear Christmas wreckage. John Dodge and Garry Ray. pp8(1). (1042 words)
Where’s Rich Duffy? mmcphee@denverpost.com
Not blogging — at least I don’t think so. He moved to Maui years ago with Ruth. John Dodge might have his contact info. Search for the Dodge retort.