Un-Sic Transit BYTE.com -- BYTE Being Revived!

According to  "Taking Another Byte: Legendary Tech Brand Revived," CMP is reviving the "BYTE.com" brand, with a fresh website.

Who'd'a thunk it?

According to the BYTE.com home page (as of December 2011): "Coming in Q2 2011, BYTE.com will serve as the professional's guide to consumer technology. Gina Smith, renowned author, journalist and network TV correspondent, will lead the coverage."

BYTE magazine was started in the 1970s, and at its peak was a thick magazine full of in-depth articles on computer technologies and products. Science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle (e.g., co-author with Larry Niven of RINGWORLD, THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE, etc.) became the computer industry's first regular columnist, with his Chaos Manor column (which Jerry has continued to run through his own site.)

I had the honor and pleasure of writing one or two articles for BYTE magazine, on the Internet, in the early 1990s, which led, among other things, to my becoming the first editor of INTERNET WORLD magazine (the first magazine all about the Internet), and also author of  THE INTERNET GUIDE FOR NEW USERS, one of the first end-user (but a little too geeky for "consumers") Internet books.  

The venerable BYTE magazine was shut down in 1998, shortly after being bought by CMP, along with Data Communications and LAN Times, from McGraw-Hill.  (See former BYTE editor Tom Halfhill's Tom's Unofficial BYTE FAQ: The Death of BYTE Magazine.

But in 1999, CMP revived BYTE as BYTE.com, a web-only publication, with my friend Paul Schindler as editor.

When Paul got also put in charge of Windows.com, I was hired by CMP, reporting to Paul, and was editor of BYTE.com -- assigning articles, managing the columnists and freelancers ("Keeping Jerry happy" was the unwritten fifth bullet point in my job description), organizing Comdex and CES and CeBIT show coverage squads, writing editorials and some articles -- happy fun!

We even got, as tchotckhes for one Comdex, BYTE.com pocket protectors!

...until 2001, when budget cuts and re-orgs and such throttled BYTE.com's budget, turning BYTE.com into a sub-site of the equally venerable Dr. Dobbs' Journal site. (See Daniel bids farewell to BYTE.com.)

And, over time, even that BYTE.com became moribund.

But huzzah! BYTE.com, like Barry Alllen, Jean Grey and Hal Jordan, lives again!

(See Harry McCracken's blog post on Byte's past and future, Good Grief, BYTE is Coming Back!)

And if the new BYTE.com is looking for somebody with proven track record to wrangle and herd contributors and articles, this Barkis is willing! (Meaning me, in case they no longer force you to read Charles Dickens' DAVID COPPERFIELD in junior high school.) Our operators are standing by!