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By Joe Connor - Editor Atari Computing
The loss of Atari World and ST Format in quick succession ended over a decade of Atari newstand publications. Without a magazine the only way to find out what's happening is to be on-line but realistically we needed another printed magazine fast! Confidence amongst the on-line fell to an all time low and many people saw this as the last straw and changed platforms.
Rumours System Solutions planned to buy and print Atari World Issue 12, which was ready to print, came to nothing. I'd been chatting with anyone who would listen about starting a new magazine and there were several possible ventures but eventually we decided to rely on ST Applications. After I heard the news ST Format had closed down I emailed Mike Kerslake, who had proposed one of the more down to earth alternative magazines. With both magazines gone and shows coming up in September I reckoned we had one final chance to launch a new magazine before the platform entered the twilight zone and after some frenetic email exchanges we decided to go for it.
We needed money to finance the print run for the first issue and decided to ask on CIX for investors prepared to contribute at least œ100 to the venture and after a week we had enough investors and the Atari Computing Group (A|C|G) was formed. We're really pleased lots of people who couldn't afford to invest offered help and/or articles and we were off to a flying start.
We decided the minimum accpetable magazine had to be A4 with at least 60 pages although there was no way we could afford colour without charging advertisers unrealistic rates. We deliberately wanted low advertising rates to attract small companies and programmers to advertise their products. The strategy seems to be working because we've sold all our advertising space for Issue 1!
The rest is history, or will be, when the magazine is launched at the shows, maybe we'll see you there? In the meantime why not read our Press release which includes subscription details.
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