''PC/Computing'' (later ''Ziff-Davis Smart Business'') was a monthly

Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...

publication that for most of its run focused on publishing reviews of IBM-compatible (or " Wintel") hardware and software and tips and reference information for users of such software and hardware.

History and profile

Established in 1988 under the guidance of founding publisher and columnist Michael Kolowich, the magazine was known for its irreverent style and annual "

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

Superguide" and " Notebook Torture Test" features. The latter feature involved baking, freezing, shaking, dropping, and splashing notebook computers from various manufacturers and then rating the machines based on which ones survived the "torture" and which ones failed. It also featured columns by

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

Paul Somerson (formerly of '' PC Magazine'', another Ziff-Davis publication), John C. Dvorak, Gil Schwartz, and, for a time in the 1990s,

Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured ...

. For some years, the magazine ran a regular column featuring an often-silly "debate" between Dvorak and Somerson. Michael Kolowich was the publisher and columnist until 1991. The magazine was based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The magazine changed its editorial focus from technology to Internet business in January 2000 and abandoned its original name shortly thereafter to try to capitalize on interest in the so-called "dot-com" boom of the late 1990s. When the technology

bubble Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying funda ...

burst in mid-2000, the rechristened "Ziff-Davis Smart Business" in January 2000 lost its ad market. The magazine is the recipient of the National Magazine Award in the Personal Service category in 2000. It folded in 2002.

References

Monthly magazines published in the United States Defunct computer magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1988 Magazines disestablished in 2002 Magazines published in San Francisco {{compu-mag-stub