Wayne Green, computer journalism pioneer

Computer journalism pioneer Wayne Green was born 103 years ago on this day, September 3, 1922. Green founded several different magazines, computer and otherwise, some of which ended up competing with each other.

Green was an avid amateur radio hobbyist, and his callsign was NSD, which he later backronymed to “Never Say Die.” It was a fitting motto for a man who would start a legendary magazine, lose control of it, then start another one, have it fade from relevance, and then start a third magazine empire.

Wayne Green in his own words

Writing in the first issue of 80micro, Green had this to day about himself:

The first magazine I published was in 1952 about amateur radio teletype. Later I became editor of CQ, a ham radio magazine. I started my own magazine for hams in 1960, that was 73 magazine. 73 is now the world’s largest ham publication, with subscribers in over 200 countries. When MITS put the first microcomputer kit on the market in 1975 I organized and did most of the work to get Byte magazine started. When I felt there was a need for a magazine aimed at beginners in computing, I started Kilobaud Microcomputing in January 1977.

Kilobaud was really aimed at kit computing. When kit computers had run their course, he shifted to vendor-specific publications including 80micro for TRS-80 computers, InCider for Apple computers, and RUN for Commodore computers.

The computer magazines Green launched ended up being legendary, starting with Byte.

Byte

Byte magazine needs little introduction. Ham radio and early computing often went hand in hand, and when kit computers started appearing, he gave them coverage in his ham radio magazine, 73. The articles proved popular, so Green founded Byte magazine in 1975 to cover these early kit-based microcomputers. On advice from his lawyer, he put the magazine in his ex-wife’s name, which led to Green losing control of the magazine. One day in November 1975, he arrived at the office to find Byte‘s staff had left, taking the January 1976 issue with them.

Green’s ex-wife, Virginia Londoner, published Byte until 1979, when she sold it to McGraw-Hill. She remained on staff until 1983. McGraw-Hill continued publishing Byte until 1998, when it sold the magazine to CMP Media, who ended publication after the July issue.

Kilobaud

After losing control of Byte, Green quickly planned to upstage it by releasing a magazine called Kilobyte. Byte pre-empted him by registering the trademark and introducing a column called Kilobyte, forcing Green to use the name Kilobaud. Kilobaud covered kit computers, later changing its name to Kilobaud Microcomputing, and simply, to Microcomputing, as the market shifted from kits to pre-built computers. Microcomputing ceased with its May 1984 issue, as general-purpose magazines covering all computers proved less profitable than magazines that specialized in one make of computer.

80micro

80micro was Green’s magazine covering TRS-80 computers. It promised to tell readers the truth, both the good and not so good things about the TRS-80. This was a hallmark of Green’s publications, even when he didn’t say the words specifically. 80micro ran from January 1980 to June 1988 and was hugely successful, inspiring other platform-specific magazines. By 1982, 80micro was the third largest magazine in the United States in terms of circulation with 152,000 issues; only Vogue and BYTE were larger.

80micro was the inspiration for David Bunnell, who founded PC Magazine only to lose control of it and quickly turned around to create PC World.

CW Communications, publisher of Computerworld, purchased 80micro and some of Green’s other publications in May 1983. By some accounts, the purchase price was $16 million. But a 1988 biography of Green written by Gordon Williamson, the husband of Virginia Londoner, said the agreement was $10,000 and a 10-year promissory note for $1 million. CW set up a subsidiary, Wayne Green Enterprises, with Green in charge to start new magazines. The $16 million more likely referred to the budget CW gave Wayne Green Enterprises.

Hot CoCo

When Radio Shack released its Color Computer, 80micro covered it. But as the Color Computer gained popularity, Green devoted a new magazine specifically to it, so the CoCo and other TRS-80 computers didn’t have to compete for space within the same magazine. It ran from June 1983 to February 1986, with the initial issue being 146 pages long. Later issues shrunk to 80 pages. After Hot CoCo’s discontinuation, it folded back into 80micro for six issues.

InCider

InCider was Wayne Green’s monthly Apple magazine, first published in June 1983. Originally dedicated to Apple II users, the magazine merged in June 1989 with A+ and added coverage for the newer Apple Macintosh computer. Over time, the magazine added more Mac coverage and considered shifting focus entirely to the Mac, which was not a popular move among the Apple II audience. The combined inCider/A+ ran until July 1993.

RUN

RUN, founded after Green sold his earlier computer magazines to CW, debuted in January 1984. It covered the Commodore 64 and VIC-20, later expanding to cover the ill-fated Plus/4 and 16 along with the Commodore 128. Commodore was selling more than 3 million computers per year when RUN launched, and it was the second-largest growing magazine in terms of circulation in 1985, peaking at 300,000 readers per month.

Wayne Green’s later career

After Green left the computer magazine business, he was in his 60s. But he wasn’t quite done.

He branched off into other areas, launching four more magazines: Pico, for laptops; Tele, which covered the nascent cellular industry; CD Review, which helped establish the compact disc as the successor to the music LP; and Cold Fusion Journal, covering the controversial field of “tabletop” nuclear energy.

The last of his magazines to cease publication was 73, which folded in 2003 after running 43 years.

Wayne Green’s legacy

Green’s computer publications were what journalism is supposed to be. They existed to serve its readers, not the other way around. Yes, the business model requires creating an audience to deliver to advertisers, and the combination of subscription, revenue and advertising revenue pays the bills. But when push comes to shove, an ethical publication doesn’t lie to or mislead its readers to avoid angering and advertiser.

Some of his magazines, such as RUN, even went to the extreme of publishing a short blurb near the end of every issue. It was a list of past advertisers who were, in their words, “having difficulty meeting customer obligations or who had gone out of business.” It went on to suggest contacting the magazine before doing any business with those companies.

But it also meant when a potential advertiser released a bad product, they didn’t pull any punches. They published honest reviews stating the good, the bad, and the ugly. And if a product was especially bad, they wouldn’t write a review at all. When asked about it, RUN’s editor-in-chief responded that even a bad review could be construed as an endorsement, and might lead people to buy a poor product.

Serve the reader

That is the spirit of Wayne Green. He made some mistakes in life. We all do. And in his later years, he went on a big conspiracy bent, spreading beliefs I don’t condone myself. He argued that the moon landing was a hoax and that cell phones cause brain tumors, among other things. But the way he ran his computer magazines and the spirit he instilled in them so that they continued operating that way even after he was out of the picture was commendable.

Wayne Green died at the age of 91 in 2013, but his legacy lives on in the magazines he founded. If you want to understand retro computers when they were still new, Wayne Green probably covered at least one of your favorite machines in one or more of his magazines.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.