McGraw Hill Closes Down Open Computing

Continuing the string of closures of magazines published for the open systems marketplace, McGraw-Hill announced it is discontinuing Open Computing with its December issue. The popular and well-respected publication had been down in ad pages for some time and had just recently lost its editor-in-chief, Dave Flack, for what he termed were "personal reasons."

Open Computing, founded in 1983, was much in the news two years ago when it changed its name from UNIX World. As part of the same strategy it announced it was shifting its circulation base away from paid subscribers to controlled circulation in an attempt to boost its over all circulation numbers and attract additional advertising revenue.

The strategy seems not to have paid off and the corporate ax came down. The demise of Open Computing, published in San Mateo, CA, continues what many see as a disturbing trend in the industry: the retreat by leading publishers from the open systems marketplace. Open Systems Today, published by CMP Publications, Manhasset, NY, was the first to go. (It actually folded into Information Week but has effectively disappeared. Open Systems Today was followed by IDG's Advanced Systems magazine, Framingham, MA, and now Open Computing.

Open Computing's publisher, Michela O'Connor Abrams, said in a statement, "The main reason (for the closure) is that the open systems message Open Computing has been promoting since 1984 ...has now become part of mainstream computing. The Internet, RISC, TCP/IP, these are just a few of the technologies that started as Unix and open systems initiatives and have now been absorbed by and, in the process, transformed all computing."

The few remaining magazines that direct the bulk of their editorial coverage to open technologies now include Miller Freeman's UNIX Review, San Mateo, CA; Venture Publishing's SCO World, Mountain View, CA; and UniForum's own IT Solutions (formerly UniForum Monthly,) Santa Clara, CA.

When Open Systems Today ceased publication, UniForum Association executive director, Richard Jaross, went on record as saying that the diminution of coverage of the open systems industry was not something the Association wants to see. On the closing of Open Computing, Mr. Jaross said, "I'm sorry to see this leading publication go. As an industry of end users and vendors we need focused, practical coverage of open systems implementation. The success of open technologies in the enterprise--while very real today--is not assured for the future. Unix-based systems are growing in market share but face increasingly stiff challenges from proprietary systems. We intend to keep IT Solutions focused on the problems and opportunities of open computing and to make it grow as well. We see our industry flourishing and we'll be supporting it with our publication."

Robert Billheimer, the founder and publisher of SCO World is intimately familiar with the history of Open Computing and has strong opinions as to its failure. Billheimer became part owner of Unix World in 1985 and ran the publication until he sold it to McGraw Hill in 1989. He remained on staff there until 1992. In an interview with UniNews, Billheimer responded to the closing of Open Computing with the words "What took them so long? When they changed their name and editorial focus in 1993 it ceased being a Unix book and essentially the magazine started to die. I think that Dave Flack and Michela Abrams sold McGraw-Hill on the idea of changing the magazine to compete with Computerworld and Information Week, and the world just doesn't need another book like those," he said.

The remaining paid subscribers to Open Computing will receive McGraw-Hill's Byte magazine. The disposition of the 100,000+ controlled circulation was in negotiation at press time.