|EÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» |Eº |5First Things First|E º ^1 Diskovery |E º |5First Things First|E º |EÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ ^C^1By Dan Tobias and Jay Wilbur The hallowed halls of Casa Softy are ringing with celebration! This month marks the five year anniversary for On Disk Monthly (formerly BIG BLUE DISK) and the ten year anniversary for Softdisk Inc. As you can imagine, Shreveport, the fair (though humid) city that we call home, is one happy place this month. What follows is a condensed version of our history. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we've enjoyed doing it! It all started in mid-1981. Jim Mangham was working for Louisiana State Univerity-Shreveport's Medical Center when he got the idea of doing an interactive publication on disk for the Apple II. At first he wanted a specialty publication for medical researchers, but ultimately he decided to make one of general interest. It was to be not only a periodical program collection (something which had been done before, as with CLOAD, a cassette publication for the TRS-80 founded in 1978) but an interactive medium with reader participation through feedback, surveys, and program submissions. Readers were to return each disk to get the next one; this was partly due to the high price of disks (then $4 each), but mostly to encourage feedback on returning disks. Jim first called has product "The Harbinger Magazette", but it was changed to "Softdisk Magazette" at the suggestion of Al Tommervik, the publisher of Softalk, a leading Apple-specific magazine. Tommervik liked the idea enough to let Jim's project affiliate itself with Softalk. This gave Softdisk a free monthly ad in return for part- ownership of Softdisk by Softalk. The word "Magazette" was a newly- coined word for "MAGAZine on diskETTE." The first Softdisk, dated September 1981, went to 50 subscribers. Early issues consisted mostly of submitted material. Submitters were not yet paid except for coupons good for free issues of Softdisk; this sufficed to draw submissions from hobbyists. In 1982, Al Vekovius, Jim Mangham's boss at LSU, became involved as a partner. At first, they worked part-time on Softdisk, but in 1983 they quit their jobs to work full-time for their company. Also in 1983, other employees were hired, including Jim Weiler as the first in-house programmer. In September 1983, Softdisk was formally incorporated. By 1984, Softdisk was ready to expand into new markets, and it acquired a failed attempt at a Commodore 64 magazine by another local company (which hadn't published any issues). This product, which had been called "Disk-A-Zine 64" was renamed "Loadstar." Early Loadstar issues consisted of programs converted from Softdisk, but eventually an independent submitter base was built up. By this time, submitters for both machines were being paid for their efforts. By 1986, submitters were getting $100 per program, and this has escalated greatly since then to encourage increasingly high-quality submissions (submitters can get over $1000 now, depending on the program and its quality). Launching Loadstar created a problem: The name "Softdisk" could confusingly refer to the whole company or its Apple publication. For a while, the generic name "Magazines On Disk" was used as if it were the company name, but ultimately, "Softdisk Publishing" became the marketing name for the full line of products, as opposed to "Softdisk" which is just the Apple product. "Softdisk, Inc." is the legal corporate name. Also in 1984 came Softdisk's big move from its original location in Jim Mangham's house in Shreveport (since torn down) to a business park on Greenwood Road. Later, the programming department required more space and was moved to an adjacent building. The bankruptcy of Softalk in 1984 left Softdisk "on its own", without a free monthly ad. Loadstar, however, made an arrangement to become the official companion of Commodore Magazine, publishing its programs on disk and getting advertising in every issue. This lasted for several years, helping make Loadstar the leading Softdisk publication until BIG BLUE DISK came along in 1986. BIG BLUE DISK was launched to capture the growing IBM PC market. By this time, Softdisk products were sold at Waldenbooks and other retail outlets, as well as through subscriptions. Several competitors had arisen over the years. PC Life featured spiffy graphics but relatively little content (BIG BLUE DISK spoofed it in the April Fool parody issue #6); Diskazine (for the Apple) and Diskette Gazette (for the IBM PC) attempted to imitate the Softdisk idea of monthly software collections, but didn't last long. The Shreveport-based I.B. Magazette was actually the first IBM PC diskmagazine, and it was still publishing up until 1990. However, the most successful competitor was Uptime, which published Apple, IBM, Commodore, and Macintosh software collections for several years before finally going bankrupt. Softdisk acquired many of Uptime's assets, including its back issues, in the bankruptcy sale. Some Uptime programmers ended up at Softdisk, including me, On Disk Monthly's editor Jay Wilbur. Continued expansion of Softdisk necessitated another move, to a weird triangular building right on the edge of downtown Shreveport. Even then the editorial and programming department eventually had to move to a nearby building to make room for everyone. Softdisk entered the Macintosh market with Diskworld in August 1988, and new publications were released for the Commodore 128 and Apple IIgs soon afterward. An Amiga project was begun, but later shelved, though it may still be resurrected. A later trend was to produce specialty publications for different markets, like Gamer's Edge for game players, and (the late) PC BusinessDisk for business users and DT Publisher for desktop publishers. In 1990, retail distribution of Softdisk products was ended due to unprofitability; getting on the shelves had been a big break years earlier, but had eventually turned into a liability. Retail packaging had evolved from the small plastic "blister-pack" (used from 1984-86) to a larger, magazine-sized plastic package (1986-88), to a large cardboard booklet (1988-90), to a smaller booklet (used briefly in 1990 until the dropping of retail sales). Recent months have brought many changes to Softdisk, as the company faces the changing marketplace of the '90s. Arnold Lincove, formerly an official in Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer's administration, came on as President in 1990. In 1991, Jim Weiler, Softdisk's longest-tenured programmer, became Director of Quality Assurance, in charge of the in-house beta testing. We've rehired Greg Malone as our publisher and moved Kevin Cloud, ace computer artist and former editor, to the position of Editorial Director. All areas of the Softdisk organization have been made more productive and better- organized, and many avenues of marketing (such as foreign licensing) have been vigorously pursued. This is necessary to survive and prosper in a tough market, and Softdisk expects its second decade to be even more successful than its first.